


like chamomile tea and forest air and dirt

by ghostscribe



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Denial, Fluff, Horror, M/M, Murder, Mutilation, Pining, Supernatural Elements, as of ch4:, kinda????, um. idk what else to tag Red is lowkey a blair witch and he's gay for tired champion Green okay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-04 22:11:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 25,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21204899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostscribe/pseuds/ghostscribe
Summary: "Um... hi."The witchsmiles.





	1. oh no

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _If this honey-dipped traveler is the death of him, the witch will choke on him and decompose in the leaves with this sickening heat in his chest and this sugar on his tongue._

This one has been visiting for months.

Visitors aren't common to Viridian Forest. Stories are told of a witch that lives in the woods, something that leads even the most experienced woodsmen in circles until they reach its lair, and it eats their souls, or corrupts their life force with its malicious intent, or it disembowels and consumes them, or something, it always depends on who might be spinning tales and who might be a coward that evening around that campfire. It's told that the Viridian Forest is not safe to traverse past sundown, no matter how true or how false that may be. It's told that a witch is the reason hikers go missing out here, and not simply the sprawling nature of the woods and the darkness that enshrouds the ground as early as late afternoon, thick curtains of leaves hungrily swallowing the sunlight before it can reach the trails. No matter how it's told, the forest is reportedly a death trap.

He is familiar with the stories, and he is not fond of them.

Should a Pokémon attack a human, said human calls it self-defense. Should a Pokémon disembowel, said human calls it rabies. Should a Pokémon swallow a human's essence from the mortal realm, said human calls it a freak accident.

Should he so much as _look_ in their direction, he is a beast.

Perhaps, then, he is a Pokémon, and perhaps he is acting in self-defense, perhaps he is rabid, perhaps he is the freak accident itself. It's impossible to fully remember anything else about himself. He is made half of branches and vines, he haunts not simply the forest but this form of life itself, he swirls from one tree to the next as he watches travelers come through the woods and he hopes, he begs, he prays, he desperately pleads to be left alone and to be safe. He begs and he pleads and he just wants to be left alone, and that's all he can remember from a life before this.

Well, that, and his broken voice. He can't remember it, but sometimes he hears stories of a selective mute who went missing in the woods, and _legend has it he was eaten by the witch,_ and he supposes perhaps he _is_ the boy and he _is_ the witch, he is fear and fear itself, he is the experience and the concept, the reaction and the catalyst.

Should it be true, he doesn't know how it came to this. All he knows is he wants to be left alone, for any footsteps in his wood are loud and he fears that noise; and no, it isn't the sticks nor the leaves that make the noise, but the travelers themselves are noisy, their energies are always frantic or arrogant, the souls always scream in fear at the mere thought of him, or they call out _fight me you fucking monster_ and his heart snaps like brittle tinder in a fire.

The witch - and he does choose to call himself such a thing, if it should describe him, if he is fear in its most natural form - he does not like visitors to the Viridian Forest.

But he likes this one.

The traveler's hair is unruly, or perhaps styled to appear so, and its shade matches the autumn leaves surrounding him, so he almost blends in to the scenery in that right. His cheeks and the tip of his nose are always tinged pink by the time the witch sees him; how long has he been traveling through the forest? The witch wonders and receives no answer from the traveler, for said traveler doesn't see him, doesn't hear him, perhaps he knows of the forest's myths but if he does - and this is what caught the witch's attention - he pays them no mind. He walks these trails quietly, and oh, sometimes he acts childish, and he makes noise, he bounces in piles of leaves and splashes through puddles rather than circling around them, he tells stories to himself and the Eevee companion he often carries on his shoulder, he stops to nibble on wild berries while he travels, he smiles and he sings and all the witch can think is _oh my I'm afraid that I -_

The witch feels something strangely, perhaps dangerously _human_ for the traveler. Some faint recollection of an earthly experience worms its way into his memory, and he feels almost ill at the realization. He feels as if he may vomit, if his form is still capable of such a thing, but it's a sickness he almost enjoys, a guilty pleasure of sorts. It's as if his chest is filled with locusts that eat at his heart and from the holes they leave, flowers blossom and tickle the inside of his chest, and he fears if he were to open his mouth he would spit up petals and their scent would intoxicate him - and perhaps, some yearning recess of his mind says, it could intoxicate the traveler, _and he could sing you a song and tell you legends of ancient lovers and trees of life, perhaps such a romantic type of wanderer could - could - perhaps - _

With his exhale comes a gust of wind through the trees. He feels like a leaf in his own forest.

"Ah... that feels nice, huh, Vivi?"

"Evoi!"

The witch hears his traveler's voice, and he feels his vines coiling around his arms, he feels himself melt, he both grows and wilts at the traveler's voice and, and -

Oh, he's singing again, a wordless song, just this little stream of notes, and, and - and the traveler comes to pause in a clearing, the sunlight dances over him and sparkles on his amber eyes. It's as if the traveler is made of honey and his bees are buzzing in the witch's chest, as if they build their honeycombs in his heart and he drowns in the sweetness that is this wonderful beautiful absolutely perfect -

He doesn't think when he acts. He can't be seen in this light, but he makes his move anyway, or perhaps that's exactly why he does make his move. He runs his fingers over the traveler's cheek, and oh he giggles and seems to even blush and the witch realizes -

"Huh?"

The traveler merely wonders what brushed against him; he sees nothing, of course, but no fear nor aggression reaches the forest, he's not afraid and he's not malicious, he merely wonders what brushed against him and oh, the witch wishes he could speak.

_I'm in love._

It hurts a little. The honey boy's bees sting his heart with some such sentiment of defeat: _he cannot see you, he will never know you, if he were to see something between a human and a gnarled tangle of branches, he would fear you, and he would be gone, and your heart would be an empty honeycomb._

And yet, this doesn't convince him to kill the bees. If this honey-dipped traveler is the death of him, the witch will choke on him and decompose in the leaves with this sickening heat in his chest and this sugar on his tongue.

The witch floats out of his thoughts when he hear the traveler's Eevee cry, and oh, what a sweet thing, she's begging for a bite of his meal.

"Not yet, Vivi, it's still kinda hot. I told you this thermos was really good, huh?"

"Evoi voi..."

"Aw, be patient, girl," he grins and ruffles his Eevee's fur. "You can have a bite once it cools off a little, okay? I don't wanna let you burn your tongue."

He's so delicate. He cares so, so much; oh, and the silliest thing about this is that one time, just one time, the witch saw his traveler walking with a girl, presumably a friend or perhaps a sibling, but he saw his traveler put on this fake bravado, some masquerading attitude of _I'm so much better than you, look at how brave I am, nothing scares me, I could battle anything in this forest if I had to 'cause I'm Kanto's top trainer,_ oh it was the silliest thing and it was so much more endearing knowing how he truly is.

What a sweet human. He must be made of honey.

"Vee!"

"We've been here for like, ten seconds, girl! Settle down!" Even when he scolds the Eevee, he's smiling, giggling at his companion.

The witch sits behind him, and he wills the wind to blow carefully through the forest clearing. If even in some tiny gesture that the traveler will never attribute to him, he wants to endear himself to his honey boy.

The traveler seems surprised at the well-timed breeze, but he quickly smiles, feeds his Eevee a bite of the noodles from his thermos, he takes a bite himself and smiles and hums happily and the witch thinks _I am certainly in love_ and even the impossibility of the traveler's requital can't sour the honey in his chest.

He summons another breeze, and he almost runs his fingers through the honey boy's hair. The traveler hums contentedly at the wind and oh, oh, the witch is in love.

* * *

It's getting cold.

Green is lost. _So_ lost. He has no idea how deep into Viridian Forest he is now, but he knows it's getting darker and windier and he just wants to get home as soon as he can. He, unfortunately, has no sense of direction after waking up, and so after his midday nap, he's managed to get... somewhere. He's definitely moving around the forest, so he - he's gotta be close to the perimeter, right? He should've known better than that, though, he shouldn't have fallen asleep, even with how inviting the autumn breeze was and how warm the sunlight was on his cheeks. Now it's just cold, the sky is overcast and the wind is pelting him with leaves.

"Evoi..."

"You smell the way out, girl?"

"Evoi vee."

Green sighs. "Yeah, I dunno either, Vivi. Are you cold?" Eevee tries to purr reassuringly to him, but he can feel her shivering. "Come back into your pokéball, girl. You'll be warmer there."

"Voi voi!" she barks in protest.

"Hey, I don't wanna let you get sick! Come on."

She purrs against his cheek one more time, but she does let him call her back into her ball. At least she can be cozy.

...there's a clearing up there.

"Oh, perfect," Green hums to himself and the privacy of the woods. "Maybe I can get my bearings there if the clouds get outta the way for long enough. As long as I can actually see the starts for a minute, I can figure out where to go from there. 'cause, y'know," and Green almost speaks as if there's an audience, as if someone is listening, "I kinda don't wanna sleep out here. I didn't bring a sleeping bag or anything like that."

Part of Green wonders if anyone ever listens to him.

He's torn. As Kanto's Champion, he's often on a figurative podium, surrounded by figurative microphones - or literal microphones, too, the paparazzi tend to flock him if he's in a city for more than fifteen minutes. He knows people are _hearing_ him, and sometimes that's almost too much, but it's never quite enough, either. Everyone asks him everything under the sun, he answers, they hear, but they don't really _listen_ and that's what kills him. Even his own grandfather doesn't listen to him (granted, he hasn't been home in months, but still), and his sister has been up in Cerulean City with her boyfriend, so she's not around either, and a camera doesn't _listen,_ it _hears_ and it spits out sound waves but nothing is truly understood, he isn't _listened to_, he's a sensation but he is not a human anymore.

Truly, Green feels like the only ones who listen anymore are Leaf and this forest.

Green looks up through the clearing at the sky. The clouds are intermittently thinning and thickening, but they never clear quite enough for Green to see the stars.

"...ugh."

Green just flops down on the forest floor and watches the clouds.

"...and like, I mean that, too," Green continues his thoughts aloud, as if the forest were listening. "I feel like no one actually wants to listen to _me,_ you know? They wanna hear the Indigo League Champion, but they don't wanna hear _me. _They don't wanna hear _Green_ and it sucks. And like, I wonder how many of them - I mean, I wonder how many people actually know what my name is. All the papers and reports refer to me as _Professor Oak's grandson_ or _the Indigo League Champion _or... anything other than my name." He sighs. "I guess at least I have a little bit of privacy, but... y'know what? No, I don't even have that. I still get followed around the region. This is the only place no one'll follow me, and I have to keep making it into a like, a _I'm brave enough to go into Viridian Forest_ thing. I just wanna enjoy myself."

Green hears the grass next to him settle, and he rolls his head to the side. He doesn't see anything, though.

"...you know what I mean?" As if someone were listening, as if someone were truly _listening._ "This is the only place I feel safe anymore. I can actually do stuff I wanted to do when I was a kid that I had to stop doing when I became Champion. But like," he looks back at the sky, and it's darker than before, "come on, who's gonna yell at an eleven year old and tell him to stop jumping in puddles 'cause it's _unprofessional, _right? That's stupid."

He takes a breath, desperately trying to gather his feelings in his chest. He's sprung a leak, though.

"I dunno, maybe I'm just stupid and I need to grow up. It's been a decade since I became Champion, anyway. I should just..." His thoughts trail off for a moment. "I didn't get to be a kid for that long, though. I just wanna live without having to be this perfect Champion, you know?"

The wind blows some leaves off the trees, spiraling through the clearing, almost dancing around specifically him.

As if something were listening.

As if -

"Do you know what I mean?"

He feels something brush the top of his head, almost like a hand, and he actually shoots up and shouts in surprise - because he's alone out here, that's the only reason he let himself express anything other than a confident type of arrogance.

Nothing is there.

Presumably.

The air stills and he doesn't feel like he's alone.

"Uh..." His pulse picks up. He looks around for any sign of a Pokémon, but he sees none, and that just makes that even weirder. "I guess that was... leaves, huh? Yeah, leaves. It's gotta be leaves."

It's so dark out now. Green is still very lost.

"...fuck."

He just starts walking back the way he came, he thinks. It's impossible to tell exactly where he came from when it's so dark and he's already lost all the beaten paths. Leaves crunch under his feet, seemingly louder than before, now that the forest is so... quiet. He could swear he heard at least a few crickets around before, but now even that white noise is gone. All he has is the rustling of leaves and his own tinnitus.

...wait.

Wait. Wait, there's no wind.

How -

"Hello?" Wow, he hates this, he's starting to panic a little and he, he _hates_ it, Viridian Forest is usually so perfect and so tender and now he's working himself up into a frenzy. "Yo, come on out."

That's... probably the worst thing he could've said, but he's talking on autopilot. He has to tell his Pokémon to come out of hiding fairly often - Eevee, specifically, they all like playing hide and seek but sometimes she's a little _too_ well hidden. Nothing comes of the call, though, so...

"...okay, uh..." _I'm gonna go home,_ but now he's not sure if he should say that. He carries on in the direction where he _thinks_ Viridian City is. He's all turned around now, though, so it's hard to say if he's heading home or towards Pewter City - or maybe he's walking directly east, following the long dimension of the forest, and fuck he's going to be stuck in the woods all night.

"No, it's fine, I'm fine," he tells himself and pretends he believes it, "everything's fine. I'm totally good. I am _golden_ right now." He's always been a good actor. "Nothing's wrong."

He's not as good an actor when there's no audience, oddly enough. It's a touch of inverted stage fright, perhaps.

Green still hears leaves rustling around him, he still hears twigs snapping even when he's not the one stepping on them, and he just... keeps going, he continues walking and he continues _calmly_ because he's not about to let whatever is following him know that he's afraid. A dull memory rises to the front of his mind, a story his grandfather told him to try and keep him in line as a child.

_A witch lives out in Viridian Forest, you know,_ he had said, speaking with the same matter-of-fact tone he always used to talk about his research. _It's eyes will drill right through you, and it's got tree branches growing out of its back. It'll grab your wrists and throw you over its shoulders into the branches so you can't escape if it catches you. If you're not in bed by nine, Green, the witch will come looking for you._

_What if it finds me, huh?_

_Then it'll eat you alive._

Unfortunately, that's one of the milder things his grandfather has said to him.

Feeling a bit nauseous, Green shakes the memory off as he comes to a fork in the road - oh, finally, trails! He'll just take the left one and figure his way out from there. The real problem is falling _off_ the trails, truly, and even a few degrees off from your original position will send you hurdling deep into the recesses of Viridian Forest with no way of telling where you are or where you've been, with no way of calling for help, because how do you call someone and tell them to just wander around the woods until they find you?

"What...?"

Something is blocking the path ahead - not really _blocking,_ per say, but something is dangling in the way of the dirt trail, hanging from a branch. He'd call it a Metapod or a Kakuna if it weren't so small - though it could be one of their larval forms, too, just dangling from a string as they do. Green has wandered the woods for long enough to get hit in the face by all of the above before, actually.

"...that's not a Pokémon." He says that to himself as he approaches the object, trying to affirm what he's seeing. "That's not - "

It's a bundle of sticks. Vaguely, it looks to be in the form of a person.

"Okay. O-Okay," he almost laughs, but he's trembling and he can't blame it all on the windchill. _Witch_ echoes in his mind again and he wonders if maybe he should turn back.

Something rustles behind him. He can either turn around and see probably nothing, possibly something, or he can trek towards an ominous albeit harmless something in front of him instead.

A stick snaps just a little too close to him. Green walks forward.

"Okay, it's fine, it's just like... like a wooden doll, or something. Yeah." Pause. "Just a wooden doll tied to a branch from it's neck, that's all." Another pause, as he processes this. "I'm gonna keep going."

As if something were listening. As if something were _following_.

Green walks around the bundle of sticks, rather than under it, because some neurosis of his swears that if he crosses it's path directly he'll be in trouble - oh, but he already walked past the doll's threshold, so he's fucked either way. He just... needs to keep moving. He realizes he doesn't recognize this trail and the trees are mossier out here than he's used to seeing so he is as lost as a bottle at sea right now, but he's fine, it's fine -

"I'm fine, I'm fine, everything is fine, I'm - "

_Hey._

Green's footsteps slow to a stop. His heart is going to beat out of his chest but he stops, he listens, he swears he heard _someone_, and if someone is fucking with him, he wants to punch them in the face.

"Yeah?"

No answer. Of course. Green swallows his fear down and puts on his Champion mask.

"Listen, if you're fucking with me, get out here and battle me. Don't be a coward."

_Hey._

"Get out here!" He's starting to get pissed off, now. "I can hear you, you know. I know you're here."

No answer this time. His chest sinks. He turns and _oh fuck _there's another doll and it's right in front of his face -

"Fffff - fuck!" Well. He _tried_ act tough.

Wait, he just -

"I was just there." That means the doll wasn't there before, he realizes. That means something put the doll there.

He turns again, expecting to see another stick doll, but he fortunately has no new visitors.

_Hello?_

"Hello?" he calls back, just - just confused, his heart is still pounding but he just wants to know what the hell is going on at this point. "Y'know what? I'm not even mad. Just come out and let's talk for a second." No answer. Green paces away from the doll (not that it's scaring him, no, shut up) and down the path. "Are you lost, too? I kinda fell asleep, and I got turned around. You shouldn't be out this late either, you know."

_I know._

The voice seems to always be just up ahead, but by now, the trail is dead-ending at a mound of earth. "Where are you?"

Something snaps to his left. He turns and sees a shallow cave tunneling into the ground. He _swears_ he hears something croaking in there, not like a frog, but like, like -

"Are you hurt?"

No answer. This is well out of his better judgement, and part of him says _dude look at those fucking dolls and tell me this isn't some freaky cult, just get outta here,_ but another part of him says _just look around, maybe they are hurt, maybe you can help, you're the Champion, after all._

"Yeah," he says to himself, to his more reckless side. "Yeah, I _am_ a Champion. If anything goes wrong, I'll send out one've my Pokémon, that'll be fine. Pidgeot can take _anything_ on."

It isn't until he says this, dead-ended at the back of the cave, that he realizes it never occurred to him to fly out of the woods on Pidgeot's back, and he realizes how strange that is, because he's gotten turned around in the forest before and that's _always_ how he's gotten out of it.

"...I'm an idiot."

Green turns to leave.

Something is silhouetted by a dim moonlight at the entrance of the cave.

The first thing Green notices is that he feels dizzy, suddenly very, very dizzy. The earth seems to spin around him and the figure is still, silent. It - It's too tall, dangling, almost, like a stick doll hanging from a tree. Robes seem to drape over the figure, ripped to shreds just inches off the ground. The figure seems to sway, or maybe Green is dizzier still. Belatedly, Green realizes there are tree branches protruding from its back, and then he notes vines dangling from what would be arms, if this is a humanoid being, and he can't tell because everything is swirling and all he can feel is an overwhelming pressure from this thing's presence.

He can't see its face, but he feels eyes boring into him.

The figure makes a croaking sound. It's not a croak, actually; it's creaking wood. The branches seem to be reaching out towards him.

Oh god.

_Oh god there really is a witch._

Green tears up and his heart pounds as the witch's cold stare pierces his very essence.

"H... H-Hello?"

The witch floats up to him quickly, but he's already basically against the cave's back wall, so there's no escaping. Twiggy fingers wrap around Green's wrists just, just like that, he didn't even process when the witch got face to face with him or when it grabbed his wrists, he feels bark scraping his skin and _oh god oh god oh god _he can't break its grip and okay _now_ he's crying because even if it isn't about to eat him alive this is still unbelievable, he can't process what he's seeing, he can't, he can't - fuck he can't even _think,_ the witch has him cornered and the fact that he's not even sure of his fate is what's scaring him senseless -

Nothing is happening.

Green looks up and realizes the witch actually has a fairly human-looking face. Greyish eyes stare back into his through matted bangs, a shaggy black mop of hair that's as coated in dirt as its (or his?) cheeks. His face is almost gentle, round, a stark contrast to the gnarled branches growing out of his back and the spindly vines dripping off the witch's wrists.

Green is slowly regaining control of his breathing as he looks at the soft face of something that's supposed to eat him alive. He stops whimpering and squirming, and the witch's grip on his wrists lightens.

The witch's delicate hold on his wrists is actually comforting. He can't believe he's admitting that to himself, but that really feels nice...

"Um... hi."

The witch _smiles._

"Uh - mmph!"

It happens all at once, and then it's over, but the moment seems to linger for hours, though only a few small things seem to happen after the witch smiles, and, and, everything just _seems_ and it's so surreal that Green isn't sure what to believe when he blinks and he's at the entrance to Viridian Forest.

"Wh... What...?" He replays his memories, and they're too clear to be manufactured, but... no way. Does this make any sense? He - no, it doesn't, does it? "Wait - "

Ever since he took his first step out of Pallet Town, Green has kept a journal of sorts (_no,_ not a diary, thank you), just to keep track of what happened when. _A little bit OCD,_ his sister said, but whatever it is, it brings him comfort, so he writes the encounter down and reads and rereads and he still doesn't know what to believe. _Taking a nap,_ is his last entry, and everything else just sounds impossible.

_– Woke up; groggy. Got turned around and unsure of where to go._

_– Walked. Still lost. Got dark._

_– Stopped at a clearing; wanted to see if I could navigate by stars. Too cloudy. Thought out loud._

_– Didn't feel like I was alone. Left._

_– Found a trail. Followed it._

_– Wooden stick doll hanging from a branch on the trail. Passed it._

_– Found another stick doll._

_– Heard someone's voice. Thought someone was fucking with me. Called out._

_– Kept investigating. Found a cave, sounded like someone might've been hurt. Went to search._

_– Hit a dead end._

And this is where it gets to the point where Green feels like he's writing a fairy tale.

_– Saw the witch._

_– Witch saw me._

_– Witch approached me. Grabbed my wrists._

_– Totally didn't start fear crying shut up._

_– Nothing happening._

_– I calmed down. Looked up. _

_– Normal human face. Wearing torn-up clothes. Branches on its/his(?) back._

_– I tried to say hi._

_– It smiled at me._

And his heart skips a beat in some stupid way when he writes the next point.

_– He kissed me._

_He kissed me._ That thought lingers for a moment longer. He's not about to write this down, but his lips were soft. He tasted like chamomile tea and forest air and dirt.

And Green, he - he kissed back. The Viridian Witch kissed him and he kissed him back.

"...no way." Still, though, he still tastes something earthy on his tongue.

_– He kissed me._ \- which he already wrote, but he feels like it warrants repetition.

_– Something stabbed me in the wrist._

_– I think he asked my name but his voice was really soft and rough and I might've imagined it_

_– but he has a nice voice_

_– and I think I told him_

_– ...woke up at the entrance to Viridian Forest. _

_– There's a piece of wood lodged in my wrist._

And yeah, it's probably gonna just stay there. Green tries to pull it out, but it hurts like hell. Pulling at it makes him want to scream in pain, it makes him feel like he's going to pass out or throw up or, or something, but removing the wood isn't an option, it seems.

Green just... he flops on his back, staring up at the clouds once again. If it weren't for the wood embedded in his wrist, he would've assumed that was a fever dream. Maybe this still _is_ a fever dream. Maybe he hallucinated it all... wait, what? He's not prone to hallucinations, even when he stays awake for days on end. He's kinda weird, but he's more or less stable.

"There has to be an explanation."

Unfortunately, Green thinks he might have to accept what his memory says. He'll have to play it off like he just slept for... over twelve hours in the woods? Hm. That's not believable, though.

_Buzz, buzz._ Fuck. Leaf is calling and he doesn't have a cover story yet.

"Yo, Leaf."

"Where the fuck are you?" Leaf asks, her words dipped in irritation over a core of concern. "It's five in the morning and you're not home yet."

...how long did the witch keep him in the woods?

"Eh," Green starts, fails to sound nonchalant. "Yeah, um, I skidded down a gully in Viridian Forest and kinda knocked myself out. I'm fine now," he adds quickly, "just kinda bumped up. I'll be back in ten."

"Where - how hard did you fall? How long were you out?"

"Pretty hard, and uh, I dunno for sure. It was dark when I was trying to get back home," oh, this is actually pretty believable, _that's improv baby, _"and I just didn't see it, I guess. I was a bit more east than usual."

"Ah." Pause. "Are you hurt?"

"Just a bit bumped up, like I said. I'm not bad, though."

Leaf is quiet for a moment, pensive, and certainly suspicious. "Were you out cold all night?"

"I guess...? I dunno, I, uh," and maybe he can play it off as a mild amnesia, "I don't remember, to be honest. I'm gonna come back now."

"Okay, just... lemme make sure you're not too beat up when you get back to the apartment, buddy, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. See ya."

Green ends the call and sits up. Something, perhaps someone, perhaps someone in _particular_, urges him to turn back toward the forest.

He sees nothing. The world is quiet. The sun is coming up behind the storm clouds overhead.

Green still tastes the witch on his lips. He knows he made a promise to share all the juicy details of this moment when he and Leaf were younger, but Green isn't sure how to tell her he just had his first kiss.

He's also not sure how to explain the wood in his wrist, and he's not sure how to explain to himself why he kisses it and hopes the witch might be kissing back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess who's in spooky mood bc of halloween coming up?  
guess who made a weird namelessshipping blair witchy au?  
that's right its ya boi ghostscribe  
.......i have forgotten how to write proper end notes i am so sorry  
this is a [crosspost](https://red-sterling.tumblr.com/post/188640096181/hey-remember-forest-witch-demon-red-au-idea-no) btw


	2. i'm in love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Of course the witch catches his honey boy when he passes out. Of course he loves him._

Today moves sluggishly along, because he's not all the way here, per say. His head is reeling for an answer and his heart is crying out for Viridian Forest.

Oh, god, Green needs to go back to Viridian Forest. He needs answers.

It's a League meeting day, but Green could care less about that. He's still trying to process everything that happened, the wooden dolls and the voice and the witch and - and the kiss, _fuck_, every time he remembers it his heart starts pounding all over again. He wonders, as the voices of the League members drone faintly outside his focus, if maybe it was just because that was his first kiss. He hadn't imagined it to be like that, no, _nothing_ like that, but he wonders if maybe he's just still flustered, and maybe it doesn't mean anything, or at the very least, maybe it isn't as dire a situation as he thinks it is.

Well, okay, it is still a little dire. He has wood stuck in his arm and he woke up to vines growing above his bed. Things are still messy.

As far as he can tell, there's two things happening right now. One: there is a witch in Viridian Forest. Two: the witch seems to like him. He has no idea what to do with any of that information. Green absently traces his fingers over the bark again, almost willing it to give him a sign, an answer, any amount of guidance through this weird fairy tale he's getting tangled in. There's no answer, though, although the wood almost feels warm, almost alive in some way.

...this is ridiculous.

"Green? Thoughts?"

Ah. He has _no _clue what Lance is asking. "Come again?"

"Any thoughts on the gyms' difficulty curves as it relates to the Indigo League?"

"Kanto gyms are fine, to be honest, it's Johto we gotta balance."

"Then it's unanimous," Lance declares, and Green is glad he didn't have to continue a conversation he wasn't paying attention to in the slightest. "Alright, let's break for lunch. Everyone, be back in half an hour."

Oh thank god, Green can go zone out now. He tugs his sleeve down when he hops up from the table.

"Green," Lance calls, "can I see you for a moment?"

Fuck. "What's up?"

"Are you feeling alright?" he asks. "Leaf told me you hit your head in Viridian Forest the other day, and you seem a bit out of it."

Leave it to Leaf to tell people things without his permission. "Yeah, no, I'm fine now. I'm just, uh," wait, he doesn't have an excuse for acting out of sorts today, "...I dunno. It's cloudy and I'm tired." Good enough.

Lance chuckles, though, so he must buy it. "I can't blame you. This is good weather for staying in with a cup of tea, I'll give you that. Did you sleep well last night?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Something buzzes by his ear. "You?"

"After I got my new Dratini tucked in, I did." Yeah, Lance really is a dad. "She's a handful - there's a, uh..."

Lance gestures to Green's hand, and for a second Green _panics_ because _oh fuck does he see the wood,_ but no, there's just a honeybee on his hand. Again.

For the past week or so, shit like this has been happening. He's woken up to oak leaves littering the floor of his bedroom (which is ironic, given his name), the wind keeps whipping around him in weird ways, he can't stop dreaming about tree branches and little red flowers - and then there's bees, he's been followed by honeybees everywhere he goes anymore. He could've swore there was a beehive in his bedroom for how many of them were in there last evening. He doesn't know what - well, he can guess the witch is causing all this, but he doesn't know _why._

"Yeah, uh... yeah." Green tries to startle the bee off with a shake of his hand, but it doesn't budge.

"Well, looks like you have a hitchhiker. Were you out in the Viridian Forest again today?"

"N-No, no, I came right over here." He has no excuse. He has no excuse and it's hard to stay calm knowing that this is part of a bigger incident.

The honeybee lazily crawls over his hand to nestle against his ring finger. They're still inside but Green could swear he hears leaves rustling nearby.

He feels dizzy.

"I-I'm gonna try and get this guy back outside," Green mumbles and darts off before Lance can say anything else.

He needs to get back to Viridian Forest. He needs answers.

* * *

There he is.

The witch follows the traveler; _Green,_ that's the name he gave, and what a lovely name it is. He matches the forest's very title and the moss on the trunks and the vernal pools, and come summer he'll match the leaves and grass and dandelion weeds. He follows Green off the beaten paths, yes, Green willfully throws caution to the wind this time and runs through the woods in search of something, something, he isn't sure what but the witch will give Green anything and everything he could ever want or ever need.

"Was it... here? No, no... well, maybe..." Green likes to talk to himself, and the witch likes to listen to him, he likes to pretend Green is talking to him when he speaks to nothing more than the air. "Oh, come on, why can't I get lost when I'm actually _trying_ to get lost?"

The witch laughs; his voice comes out as a melody of leaves and the babbling of the creek Green is running along. He's so silly. He's so pretty.

"Okay, okay," and now Green has decided to explain himself, and perhaps he can help his poor traveler, "there was a fork in the trail, and whatever path I took must've been heading east. Viridian Forest doesn't have caves in that main stretch of it, they're all further east and a bit north, towards Pewter... somewhere up there, then." Oh. Is he looking for the cave? "Then I'll find him and figure this out."

Find... find who?

The witch follows Green still, and he knows he's been noticed, because Green keeps looking back in his direction, and that makes his heart swarm. Even when Green isn't directly looking at _him,_ he's looking even in his direction, he's noticed his sound, he hears the leaves in his throat and perhaps he can see shadows from his branches that don't match the rest of the forest's shedding trees; oh, and he knows Green knows he's here, he's positive, he knows what's going through Green's head because he left a part of the forest on his wrist to keep an eye on his honey boy. He even sent a little bee to ease his thoughts today, _settle down, relax, it's okay, you're safe, honey._

Through the bark, he could hear Green's clearest thought before he started his journey here: _I need to get back to Viridian Forest._

He's here now, presumably looking for a path he traveled before, and oh, the witch is so stupid, because it only occurs to him now that perhaps his traveler is looking for _that_ cave in particular, where they met, _I'll find him and figure this out_ may be referring to him.

...someone is looking for him. It stings. It stings, and the witch is afraid.

He doesn't like visitors. He never has, but he likes this one, and yet he feels too tender in the face of confrontation, he feels weaker, smaller, it's harder for him to escape and he fears the worst when he's in the spotlight. He's not sure why, but some primal part of his mind tells him that humans aren't safe and he needs to hide among the trees. He doesn't fear his honey boy, no, and yet it still stings, he's still _afraid,_ he wants nothing more than to hold Green close and kiss him and _oh my you're getting ahead of yourself, witch, _but he's afraid of being seen and being confronted, but he's just as afraid of losing his honey boy, and his lips were soft the last time they kissed, he tasted like homemade soup, he tasted like sleep, he tasted (and perhaps he's making this up, perhaps his mind is on overdrive, perhaps these were his own bees on his own tongue) like honey, oh he wants Green to be closer but he's simply _afraid._

The witch shakes his thoughts away, and Green is still lost from being lost, he's still not to the cave he wanted to reach, and while the witch could simply show himself here, he can't muster the courage.

"Okay, where am I now?" Green looks around the forest, and again his eyes shimmer beautifully in the low light under the growing storm clouds, they look like honey or even caramel in these shadows. "I just gotta... my usual clearing is up there, and I came back down south, I think, and that's when I got lost, so... this way?"

He feels like a lover sitting at a window, watching, waiting for his soulmate to come to him. He feels fuzzy and he feels warm and just a little bit sick. It's one thing to meet someone fleetingly in the depths of the night, it's one thing to take one little indulgence and carry his traveler back home. It's another thing to have to properly meet him, it's another to be... social.

Then again, the witch can actually be near him, instead of watching him from the trees and pretending that Green is talking to him.

"Right here."

Oh. Green actually found his way back to where they first met.

The witch's dolls still hang where they were left; he uses them to keep a clearer view of certain parts of the woods, just in case, he's not sure what the _just in case_ refers to, but he knows he wants to feel in control and he wants to feel safe knowing he has his own sort of surveillance system in place. He knows they tend to scare people off, but that's more of a benefit than anything.

Seeing Green yelp when he set another one out was too cute. It may have been a little mean, but it was really, really cute.

"Alright!" Green calls out, his voice is so loud that it startles the witch but he loves his voice so much that he doesn't try to run away. "I know you're around here somewhere. Come out."

He... he can. He should.

"Hello?"

He wants - He wants - Oh, he's a trembling tangle of _want_ and _fear_ and _love _and _oh I'm afraid I'm in love -_

And yet the witch is frozen, and it begins to rain.

"...fine, whatever."

_Oh he's mad at me -_

"I mean, like," Green starts to leave, and while the witch feels like he might sob, he follows anyway, "I'm just confused. What's going on? Why are you doing this to me?"

His heart plummets.

"...I mean, like," and Green's voice softens, as if he knows, or maybe some instinctive part of him wants to be soft and wants to be gentle, "you're not even hurting me, and I appreciate that, but I don't understand. I have wood stuck in my arm and, and weird shit keeps happening, and - _fuck,_ I don't need this to stress me out, too. I have enough shit to worry about with the League. Lance oughta help me handle all the Champion stuff herself, but she's always too busy with his dragons, so then _I_ gotta deal with it, and it's kinda hard to focus when I wake up with leaves in my mouth or bees crawling on my face!"

Green sounds weepy as he walks along the ridge of a deep gully as the rain pours down, and maybe he _is_ crying but the witch wouldn't know the difference between tears and raindrops.

He hurt his honey boy. Red wants to go up in flames.

"...that's why I just wanted to talk," Green continues, meandering across a log, over the gully, even as the rain starts pouring down. "Or - I dunno if you even _can_ talk, but like... c'mon, can you ease up a little? Do you want something from me? All you have to do is ask, you know. I'm kinda freaking out over here, though, I don't know what you want from me."

Oh, he wants love.

Green is so sweet. He's so sweet and the witch is so mean. He didn't think this would hurt him so much, but if he's already stressed about his Pokémon League whatever-it-is, of course this would hurt. Of course he hurt Green. Of course -

"I'm not mad, okay?"

Oh.

"I know you probably mean well, and I'm sure you're really sweet." Oh, he feels hot when Green says that, he feels like summer. "I just... I need to relax."

Oh, the witch can arrange that.

"You know what I mean?"

Viridian Forest is home to many Pokémon, many of whom use spores to put their enemies to sleep. The witch is familiar with these spores, and the witch is familiar with how they affect humans, and the witch is familiar with lulling said humans to sleep, and perhaps this will scare Green one more time, but all the witch needs to do is clasp his hand over Green's mouth, and then it'll all be okay, he can settle down and he can relax and he can feel safe and warm and loved _oh I'm so sorry I love you so much -_

Of course the witch catches his honey boy when he passes out. Of course he loves him.

* * *

When Green comes to, the rain is pouring down even harder.

He's barely lucid, but it sounds like the rain is outside, somehow. His first thought is _oh, Leaf took me home,_ and his second thought is _or, or the witch took me home,_ and his third thought is _fuck, I'm still soaking wet. _He's shivering, but he feels himself laying on some kind of cloth, and he feels some kind of soft heat on his cheek. What... his memory is hazy. He went to look for the witch, failed to do so, he was wandering and ranting after that, and then he just - he just passed out. He shifts to -

Actually, he doesn't shift. He can't move. Odd. He should... He should definitely be more worried about this, but he's always groggy when he wakes up. Five more minutes can't hurt, right? Maybe he just got tangled in his blankets, yeah, that happens a lot. Sometimes he get so stuck in them that he falls out of bed in the morning trying to get up.

He's not at home, though. He realizes that because of the smell. He smells forest air and dirt and - and chamomile tea -

Green opens his eyes, and he would scream if he were any _less_ shocked at the scene, if he weren't just - just utterly _paralyzed. _

The witch is cradling him in his arms, in his branches, in his vines. Green is bound, perhaps inadvertently or perhaps very intentionally, by the embodiment of the woods. He can't move. He certainly can't escape.

Their eyes meet.

Their eyes meet and now Green doesn't _want_ to escape.

"Um... h-h-hi." Smooth Green. Smooth.

The witch smiles at him, but says nothing, but - but his face is so sweet, and even the scraping of bark on Green's skin and the gentle ache from vines wrapped too tightly around his wrists can't distract him from the tenderness in the witch's eyes.

Oh god.

_Oh god am I - I am absolutely not -_

"Um," Green fumbles for something, anything to say, "I, I - uh..." Oh god his heart is racing _oh no oh no _he knows this feeling and, and _oh no -_

The witch tilts his head at Green, as if to ask _yes, what is it?,_ but he neither speaks nor projects his voice ethereally to Green's mind, and that's almost frustrating. Maybe Green would be less of a mess if he would say something - but no, Green is fine, he's a Champion, he can totally handle this, he can handle anything, he's fine, it's fine, _everything is fine I'm totally cool -_

"...d-did I introduce myself?" The witch nods at him, and Green stupidly - "Y-Yeah. Cool, s-so, um, I-I'm Green," - stupidly reintroduces himself with a hell of a stutter. "Uh... um..."

Green pulls weakly at the vines binding his arms. They don't budge, and the witch makes no moves to release him, so Green just accepts his fate, because he's more worried about what'll happen if he tries to struggle. That and the threat of possibly getting stabbed by the witch's branches urge him to stay put, and that's it, that's the only reason he's submitting to the witch, never mind that the witch has never hurt him, he, he - Green doesn't like this, he's not enjoying the heat of the witch's hand on his cheek or the feeling of being coddled or _oh god I can't believe I like this -_

"Do you have a name?" he blurts out, just to get out of his head, to deny his feelings a little longer.

At first, the witch just stares blankly at him, as if he hadn't said anything at all, but he does shake his head after a moment.

"Oh." Well, that's the end of that. "I'm... what do I call you, then?"

The witch is thinking, presumably, his eyes drifting lazily around the cave, his fingers caressing Green's cheek, rubbing circles on his skin, and - are his fingers softer than they were before? They feel less like twigs and more like leaves, now, like lamb's ears, and no, no, Green isn't enjoying this, he chokes back a contented sigh but then the witch's thumb grazes his lips and Green _whines_ at the touch, oh no, _oh no - _

_Red._

"Red?" Pause. "Is that your name, now?"

_Yes. To match you._

"Oh." His heart _explodes. _"Cool. S-So... So, you're Red. Cool."

The witch - Red, Red gives him the tiniest smirk, and Green feels like a wilting flower in his arms.

_Settle._

Green swallows thickly. "I-I... I think I'd feel better if you'd, um, let me go...?" It's more of a question than a reply, as if Green isn't even sure if he believes it - but he does, he does, he -

_You wanted to relax._

"I know, b-but I - " _Don't call me out like this -_

_But you like this._

Red sees right fucking through him, and Green's act is over, his mask falls off. Green whimpers and buries his face in Red's chest, he leans toward the witch's heart and it sounds less like a human heart and more like rustling leaves and maybe a beehive.

"...heh."

Red just audibly laughed at him. Green feels like he's on fire.

"Sh-Shut up."

"Hm."

Green feels Red shift, and then he feels the witch plant a gentle kiss on his temple. Red's fingers run through Green's hair, and Green hums happily, guiltily, it feels like a mid-afternoon breeze in a forest clearing where the sun feels so inviting that he can't resist a nap.

Red, he - he pulls Green away from his chest to kiss him again, and again he tastes like chamomile tea and forest air and dirt, and again Green kisses back, but this time when the kiss breaks Green is still here, still trapped, still a prisoner (perhaps a voluntary prisoner at this point) of the witch.

"...why me?" Green's voice barely leaves his lips, but he - he has to know, he still needs an answer. The question has been nagging at him ever since Red marked him with the bark in his arm.

_You're gentle._ And then - and maybe he just says this to fuck with Green - _You're beautiful._

"I..." _Oh no._ "So are you."

_There is no way I'm in love._

Red's eyes light up like sunlight through a dense fog, grey and cold but so _bright,_ he opens his mouth and the noise he makes is like a light breeze and fluttering autumn leaves and he's so cute -

_Oh no._

_I'm in love._

_Oh no I'm in love - _

And that plays on loop in his head, and Green isn't even sure if he's actually that upset about being in love, or, or if he's just scared of the unknown, and yet he doesn't fight when Red kisses him again, he kisses _back,_ he takes in the flavor of the Viridian Witch, _oh no, I'm in love,_ he grips the collar of his cloak as best he can with his arms still tangled in vines, _oh no, I'm in love,_ he leans up and kisses Red again when the kiss ends, _oh no, oh no, _Red's fingers twirl and tangle in his hair but the tugging doesn't bother him, _oh no, oh no, _Red almost purrs into Green's mouth and Green hums back and leans deeper into the kiss, _oh no, I'm in love, oh no,_ Green pulls himself up and Red lets him rise and Green straddles him and pushes into the witch when they kiss again because he can't stand having any distance between them _oh no I'm in love I'm in love I'm in love I'm in love with you - _

"I love you," Green breathes between kisses, and it's such a reckless thing, he doesn't even take the time to process his feelings, he just spills his heart onto the witch like honey spilling into a cup of chamomile tea.

_I love you too._

Red holds Green so close that it's hard to breathe, and Green basks in the ache in his chest. He basks in this feeling of choking on love and the flavor of chamomile and leaves and earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello welcome to _this was supposed to be a oneshot and now has two (2) whole chapters_  
also welcome to convenient time skip bc i just wanted to get to the kissie parts oops


	3. absence makes the heart grow fonder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _He wishes he would've stepped outside, wandered into the woods. Wishes he'd let himself get caught again. That would've been preferable. _   
_Anything would've been preferable. Would've felt less lonely. He wonders if the witch were lonely, too._

The nails are too long.

Green was having a delightful time eating lunch out with Leaf, but he sees the shadow and his heart jumps. He double-takes, almost shouts, but no sound comes from his mouth, swallowed by whatever merciful god decided he didn't need to attract that attention to himself today. By the time he's pinned down where the shadow would've been, it's already gone. All he could make out with any amount of clarity was that it looked like its nails were too long.

Looked like sticks. He hasn't seen the witch this month and he almost _hopes -_

He takes a deep breath, tries, fails to regain composure.

"What're you so spooked about over there?" This time Leaf makes him jump.

"Nothin', nothin'. Just - just a bit of deja vu, I guess. Freaked me out a bit."

Leaf's been catching on. Maybe she already caught on the night after he met the witch, Green thinks. She's not dumb, she's anything but, but it's times like these where he wishes she were at least less observant.

"What do you mean?"

Green shrugs. "Just been jumpy all day. Didn't sleep well enough last night and had too much coffee this morning, y'know."

She looks at him, scanning his face for any tells of a lie, but Green somehow manages to keep the poker face up. "You need to get more sleep."

"Man, I _try,_ it just - doesn't work out, y'know."

"Well, you'd have better luck if you didn't stay out until five in the morning. Seriously," wait, wait, "what were you doing in the woods last night?"

Uh.

"What?"

"I saw you walking back to your apartment when I was on my morning walk with Venusaur."

Green has no recollection of that.

"What, was I sleepwalking? You sure that was me?"

Leaf furrows her brow. "When'd you go to bed?"

"Maybe... quarter to three?" Pause. "I wasn't out at five in the morning." Another pause. Leaf looks at her tea as if it has the answer. "You sure you saw 'em headin' toward _my_ apartment, or what?"

Leaf looks back up at him, almost doubtful, but she doesn't seem to deliberately doubt _him,_ no, she just seems as confused as Green is. "I'm... I dunno, now. They were up early then, whoever that was."

"Yeah, yeah." He feigns relief. Pretends nothing is wrong.

Green glances over his shoulder. Sees nothing. Feels still he might be being watched for only a moment more.

He wonders if the witch can even leave the forest to stalk him, or if he's just losing his mind. He swears he smells chamomile and it's not just from Leaf's tea. Could be someone else's tea, though. The restaurant is packed.

He wonders why, in such a busy room, why he feels lonely in the absence of the witch.

* * *

The witch does not like visitors.

They're frustrating, save for his honey boy. They don't often know how to treat the forest, don't understand how desperately it tries to mother that which inhabit its same earth. Some of them are crude enough to litter the soil with garbage. Some just don't know how to watch their step, they snap roots under the soles of their feet, they swat at the moths and bees in their own home, they kick the dirt like the grass doesn't grow. They are frustrating indeed in their absolute lack of consideration for the life that is the forest.

He supposes, perhaps, they cannot see the forest through the trees. Cannot see its vitality beyond their own.

Even more troublesome are the humans who traverse the woods in the depths of the night, when not even moonlight can pierce the canopy of leaves above. It's funny, the witch thinks, that the humans rely so desperately on the meandering paths their ancestors created, when all they would really need to do is walk straight through to reach either one city or the other. The forest is not so complex when one looks to the night sky before they enter, follow the north star or bid it farewell.

Sometimes children come to the forest and are not so fortunate as to have any knowledge of the stellar map. They struggle to remember their lefts from their rights, they get turned around, they wander in circles and begin to weep when they feel they'll be forever trapped.

Red - _Red,_ if that is what the witch is to call himself, to match _Green,_ \- Red offers the children a Caterpie, a Pidgey, a particularly bold Pikachu. They always look at the Pokémon, and the Pokémon always know their way, and as the child follows the Pokémon they are free so soon from the depths of the woods.

He is never so generous with the adults. There is (perhaps unfortunately) some truth to the stories of disappearing travelers. There is (very unfortunately) some truth to the idea that a witch is merely a monster.

Red wants to approach Green, wants to make himself known, but he cannot. Green is accompanied by three others that Red does not recognize. His vines writhe with unease and the hive in his chest readies itself for an attack.

"It's gotta be around here somewhere, right?"

"Well, how far in did you go?"

"I don't think it was _this_ far in. I think we're too deep."

"Do you even remember dropping it, though?"

"Of course he doesn't. If he did, we wouldn't have to backtrack around the entire route."

"Hey! I know I had my trainer ID when I left Viridian City, and I know I lost it when I got home to Pewter Town. I know where it can and can't be."

The three that Red does not recognize continue their banter, while his honey boy follows quietly along behind them, scanning the trees, stepping over the roots of overgrown oaks. He seems uneasy and perhaps too vigilant and still he is beautiful. He is attentive and sweet, he is humming tenderly under the cacophony of the rest, he is a sunset past sundown.

The rest are merely human. They are bickering fools and Red feels uneasy.

They pass him, still arguing, and he notes each one's features as best he can, keeps note that they may be associates of his honey boy. One is well-built, fairly tan, spiked hair and rough hands like a miner. Another has orange hair, brighter and more glaring than Green's, eyes a shade of cerulean like some artificial lake. The last companion has longer brown hair, smaller in build than the others but her bark may match her bite, he fears. Her hat covers the majority of her face even with no sun from which to shade herself.

The witch reaches up to tilt his own hat down over his eyes, before he recalls that he does not have a hat, and he's not sure why he tried to do that. His gesture sends a breeze through the leaves and his honey boy grins softly at the way it caresses his cheek.

"Alright, hold up," the hat girl stops in her tracks, and with her so too do the rest of them. "Brock, you had your ID when you left Viridian City?"

"Right." _Brock,_ name for the man with miner's hands. "The last time I would've reached in that pocket was when I was texting Misty that I was on my way up."

"Who keeps their wallet in the same pocket as their phone?" _Misty,_ name for the aquatic woman.

"_I _do, thank you very much."

"Well, look where that got you!"

"At least I don't panic in the middle of a party because I can't remember what pocket my phone was in!"

"Rude!"

"Could y'all just shut up for a second and keep looking for that ID?" Green tries, fails to snap. He sounds irate but he sounds tired. "I'm not staying out here all night."

Of course Green isn't staying out here all night. Already the witch begins to mourn the inevitable absence of his honey boy.

"Green's right," hat girl affirms. "I know you guys had a few drinks, but you're not _that_ drunk. Get it together."

"I'm _tired_ of looking, Leaf," Misty protests to _Leaf,_ that's the one with the hat. The witch reaches again for his own and recalls again he does not own a hat. "If we don't find it in the next ten minutes, I'm going home."

Red turns around, rustles, scans the earth for any sign of the thin plastic an ID would be made out of. The motion sets into motion the rustling leaves, though no wind graces the woods, no. It is merely a byproduct of the witch's existence and his tethers to its soil.

"What the - did you hear that?" Misty, she's nervous. "I'm not kidding, I heard something rustling over there."

"Like a Pokémon?" Leaf offers.

"No, like - something bigger! You heard it too, right?"

The girls bicker back and forth. Green looks to Brock, who merely shrugs.

"Look man," Green sighs, tired, a lazy breeze on summer blooms, "you shouldn't have come out here in the middle of the night. Y'know that's a bad idea."

"Oh, don't tell me you believe in that witch nonsense." Nonsense. Yes. "You come around here all the time, don't you? You of all people should know better."

"Yeah - no - I mean - "

Green looks around when he is nervous or flustered or frustrated, looks as if the earth has an answer for him. He looks and he sees the witch - Red only presumes he is seen, he sees Green's eyes widen and then he looks away very suddenly.

"I don't... care about the witch."

...does he really not?

"It - It's just - you're not gonna find this thing while the sun's down. If you really can't find your ID, I'll just issue you a new one and void the old one in our system, alright?"

"You can do that?" The news distracts Misty from her argument.

"You should know that," Leaf mutters. "You're a gym leader, after all."

"Alright, Miss _I'm the strongest gym leader around!_ What other expert knowledge would you like to bestow unto little ol' me on this - "

She is shouting and Red flinches, inhales sharply. It is a shrill and unforgiving sound.

It is too close. It is not masked.

The lot of them all jolt, all scream to some extent. The way his honey boy winches at the cry makes the witch want to weep. Clouds form overhead.

_I love you,_ he had said. Red - _Red,_ he calls himself, to match _Green - _Red wonders if perhaps Green was lying.

He cannot bare the thought.

"What the hell was that?"

"I dunno! Do you?!"

"Don't look at me! I don't live anywhere near here!"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"Is it aggressive?"

"We should leave."

"Which way do we go?"

Loud. Loud. _Loud._ Wind picks up.

"This way!"

He can't tell which voice is what. Loud. Loud. Loud. Loud.

He curls in on himself. So too do the branches curl down, almost reaching for the humans as they make their escape. They snag one's shirt and another's hair, there is more shouting they are so _loud loud loud -_

He cannot see how the forest bends around him when he is afraid and when he is overwhelmed and when he feels the world will crash in on him. Cannot see. He only hears people _scream,_ and he knows only in hindsight that he is scaring them, but he is scared of _them,_ and, and - and he is _hurt,_ perhaps _I don't care about the witch_ meant nothing but Red fears fears fears the worst, he named himself for Green and _I don't care_ makes him want to burn to the ground.

Something about the idea of being loved and then being _abandoned_ kills that which was perhaps never alive to begin with.

...not _perhaps,_ no, he was never alive. He never had a hat.

He sees them leave the forest, sees them skid to a halt and stop to catch their breath, and they become blurry as they distance themselves from him, from the trees, from the soil. So too does his honey boy disappear and he shrieks into the night. He does not care if they can hear him or not. It hurts. He is hurt.

If a tree falls in the forest, it does make a sound.

* * *

The sun rose and Green hasn't slept yet.

He doesn't intend to sleep. He has two goals, only one of which makes any rational sense; find Brock's trainer ID. It sucks losing things in Viridian Forest, though, because if it hasn't been buried under the leaves or kicked into the underbrush somewhere, a Rattata or a Pidgey found it and took it to their nest, never to be seen again. He knows it's a fruitless endeavor but he feels a sense of duty as the Champion.

He almost wants to sob when he has that thought. It's not like it's new, not like it hurts, but he's just - he's so _tired_ and last night was a mess. Sometimes Kanto's league gets together to have a meaningless party, meaningless conversations, and Green can never really feel easy in that kind of atmosphere. He feels sick around that many people; that's why he became a trainer in the first place. He just - he wanted to get away, wanted to surround himself with Pokémon and not much else. Sure, he also wanted to prove his strength, wanted to prove to the world he could be more than just _the esteemed Professor Oak's grandson,_ but now this is _all he is,_ and when he hears _a toast to our Champion_ and when he smells hard liquor waft through the stagnant air of an overpacked living room, it's just, it's just...

He wishes he would've stepped outside, wandered into the woods. Wishes he'd let himself get caught again. That would've been preferable.

Anything would've been preferable. Would've felt less lonely. He wonders if the witch were lonely, too.

He keeps seeing the form of the witch out of the corner of his eye, more and more as the days go on. He's not sure if he's just going insane or if his subconscious is trying to cope with something. He keeps getting _hopeful_ when he thinks he sees the shadows of tree branches on the walls, when he hears leaves rustling indoors.

"...I dunno why," Green says aloud, in hopes there will be an answer. "I know I - I know I kinda told you off for messing with me too much before, but I kinda... I-I dunno," he sighs, abandons all hope of explaining himself in any coherent way. "I guess I... I already - I dunno if you were listening, but I already talked about how people just look at me and see a _Champion_ and not, like, y'know, _me._ Leaf's kinda an exception to that, but otherwise, it's just... I mean, _you_ don't see me as a Champion, and, and..."

He stops, listens for any rustling, scans the area slowly in hopes of a misplaced silhouette. No such sign of paranormal life reveals itself.

"...Okay. Fine. Whatever."

Green pulls his cloak tighter around himself, keeps his eyes glued to the forest floor. The ID's gotta be around here somewhere, unless it's not, in which case Green is gonna have a solid three hours of paperwork and reprinting and re-registering and once that's done god knows what else tomorrow's gonna hold for him. He can't tell if things are getting busier or if he's just getting tired.

"...are you even out here?" It's a bit of a question to the ID, a bit of a question to the witch. Either way he receives no answer.

"...this is fucking pointless."

Green just sits right where he is, doesn't even bother to make it to his usual clearing. He's so tired. Tired. If he passes out here maybe he'll wake up in a cave again, and maybe this time he won't end up back at home.

Just - he's fucking _tired. _

"Are you ignoring me 'cause I ran away last night?"

At last, an answer. A bee darts into his face, hits him right on the nose.

"Sorry," he mumbles, rubbing the pollen off his nose. "Not like I could've said anything, or they would've called me crazy. At least I..." He tries, fails to come up with a bright enough side to this. "...came back?"

No answer. Green sighs.

"I miss you."

Somehow, that's enough. Somehow that's so, so much.

The witch has never been sighted in broad daylight, obviously. He's reclusive and he doesn't seem to like being around other people. It's why Green was so perplexed as to why the witch took a liking to him in the first place. He still wonders now why he's been marked, why bees swarm to him and why leaves fall in his hair and why his house plants are growing faster than he can fathom. He knows it's because _of_ the witch but still doesn't understand _why._

Doesn't know why Red - the witch that calls himself _Red - _why Red chose a name to match Green's own.

He doesn't know what Red sees in him. He doesn't know what's so special about him.

Doesn't know why Red braves the sunlight to rush into Green's chest, stumble into his embrace.

"H-Hey, hey." Green kinda pats Red's head. It's still always a little odd with the witch, with the way he looks, but Green supposes he's never been one to attract normalcy. "It's been a bit, huh? Y-You miss me too?"

Red shrieks, a similar noise to the night before, but a little hollow and a little more... bubbly, almost, like he's underwater.

"...is that a _yes,_ or...?"

_Don't care._

"Don't..." Oh. _Oh._ Oh fuck. "I-I didn't mean - I wasn't trying to - to..."

Green fears he just... has no solid justification. He doesn't know what he's supposed to do for Red now.

"I can't - I don't think I can tell anyone about you though, y-y'know? So I just... y'know, play dumb. I-I guess." No answer. "I still love you, you know. That's why I came back today."

He didn't think that last sentence before he said it. It just comes out and it occurs to him that perhaps he didn't ever intend to find the stupid trainer ID in the first place.

Red makes a cooing sound, a noise between a sharp winter wind and an owl. He nestles his face into the crook of Green's neck, and this time Green neither flinches nor struggles when the vines envelop him.

It's nice. This is nice.

"...I'm really sorry 'bout last night. Can I make it up to you?"

Red is motionless for a moment, but then he lifts his head, bumps his nose against Green's own. He needn't say anything nor even send some natural signal, no, it's written in his eyes and Green supposes that's payment enough. He still tastes like chamomile and forest air and dirt.

Somewhere in the kiss, Green swears he can taste honey on Red's lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _ghostscribe,_ you ask, _why the fuck did you update this fic after leaving it abandoned for almost a year?_  
i do not have an answer for you. i just have more witch au  
also i forget what Leaf does in this au but now she is gym leader bc Green is champion  
i havent slept and its 9:29am. minimal proofreading we die


	4. wildfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Pokémon don't attack like that._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (quick tw since this has been soft up til now: if you've been waiting for witchy gruesomeness, here it is! please check the tags and proceed with caution)

Red does not like visitors.

He has become more attentive to them, though, and that is perhaps the singular silver lining to it all, that he is no longer _startled_ when they arrive, no. He is aware when they are coming, very aware, because he is waiting for, watching for, Green.

Green, honey boy, light of his life, sunbeam through his canopy.

Whenever he hears footsteps entering the woods he immediately slinks through the leaves, watches from the mushrooms and the moss, investigates among the Rattata and Pidgey. The visitor is very often not Green if the day is not yet done, difficult to ever see his light through the sun. He is a Champion, after all, he is very busy, so often does he pass outside the forest toward the mountains out west but he does not enter the woods until the sun is setting and his day is over. More often it is someone traveling from Pewter City to Viridian City, perhaps a family out on a quiet stroll during the day (when it safe from the witch), a merchant bringing goods one way or the other for the farmer's market in the early morning (when it is safe from the witch), a trainer passing through to get their first gym badge under the autumn sun (when it is safe from the witch).

Green is one to come when it is not safe, because he _is_ safe, because said witch loves him til death do them part.

He does not like to think about the death of his honey boy. He does not like to think about death.

He does not like tonight's visitors.

It's a crowd of four men, all shouting and cackling to various degrees. They smell intoxicated to some extent but they do not appear to be so stumbling and babbling that they're reached complete incoherency. Sometimes people come and they are completely unaware of even themselves, and Red tends to simply put them to sleep with a Bulbasaur's pollen, he sets them outside the edge of the woods, and they handle themselves from there. It's a simple enough process when they can barely move their feet with any synchronicity.

It is much more difficult to handle men like this. They are awake and they are aware. They are carrying gasoline canisters and lighters and cans of air freshener.

Red feels ill.

"Where we gonna party, boys?"

"You sure we gotta be this deep in? What if the place burns down with us still in it?"

"Don't be such a pussy. We gotta start _deep _inside if we wanna burn this house down!"

"All this 'cause that lady didn't give you her gym badge?"

"Leaf's ace Pokémon is a Venusaur! She shouldn't have won, I've got an Arcanine! She's gotta be cheating to keep her image up, and I ain't havin' it!"

"Last gym leader is always the hardest, even out in Johto. I hear Clair straight-up refused to give a kid his badge one time."

"Yeah, I'd like to burn down Blackthorn's backwoods, too."

So it is a crime of revenge, arson against not even the human in question but against the land that did nothing.

The witch feels ill.

"Here, you take these, go that way and find a place to _warm up,_ heheh. We'll get started out that way. When you're positive the wind ain't gonna blow the flames out, we meet back in Pewter City, and no one's any the wiser."

"If we get caught, you're paying our bail."

"Shut up. You're the ones who agreed to help. Now hurry up, we're wasting time."

The witch does not like visitors.

He can see everything, this witch, but cannot _be_ in each place, no, that would wear himself too thin and too frail, paper-thin bark flaying off a river birch. Though the four men part from one another they remain in pairs, intent on perhaps revenge, perhaps whatever the ringleader promised them. No such promises will be kept. They will either change their plans, or the witch will make plans of his own.

"Man, he is _really_ worked up about that loss."

"You're telling me. That's my new computer money he's offering us though, so I'm not gonna question it."

Thunder rolls overhead. One of the men mutters a swear below his breath.

"We'd better get on it," the other declares, "or else we're gonna get rained out."

"Fire will still burn if it's not raining too hard, right?"

"I dunno man, that was a hell of a thunder clap. This might be a nasty one."

Nasty storm, no. Storms come naturally, they water the earth below, lightning strikes and rejuvenates the soil with nitrates, heals that land which becomes so viscerally intoxicated with humanity's intervention. The storm is not the nasty one.

The witch follows them. Every minute, thunder claps and roars overhead, every minute lightning flashes. Their minds are not changed. If anything there are merely rushing to finish that which they've already promised to do.

The witch does not like to think about death. He prefers to think of life and its cycles and its unwavering respiration, immortality in the cyclical comas of the seasons. He would even, perhaps, like to consider himself a pacifist. He will not bite unless bitten, will not sting unless stung, will not burn unless burnt.

It feels uncomfortably warm.

"How's about right here? This is as good a spot as any."

"You don't think this tree's too far away from the rest?"

"Uh, I don't think so, no. Besides, if it doesn't work, we blame the rain and get our pay anyway. Hah, that's quite a rhyme, don't you think?"

"Time to _bust a rhyme,_ yeah. Time to do some petty revenge, I... I guess. Hey, what the hell is this?"

"What's what?"

Wooden dolls. They are hung not from strings but from the vines, dangling, tendrils wrapped around the necks of each one from the highest reaches of the trees. There is a constant wind but the witch wills the dolls to remain still, staring, eyeless yet _staring_ deeply into the eyes of the arsonists. They stare and so too do the humans stare back.

"Some weird prank. My gramma used to say this place is haunted. Something about a witch out here."

"Well, witch or not, I want my new computer. Gimme that air freshener first, I haven't done this shit since I was a kid."

"Yeah, man! Show me what you've got!"

One man flicks the lighter. The air shifts, bellows against the little flame, and it is out before it even comes on. Irate grumbling, that is the man's answer, oh how dare something interfere with his _assault._ He turns his back to the wind but the wind follows him, the witch wills it to follow, blow the flame out, _do not. Do not._

"Motherfucker... whatever, man, spill the gas and let's get outta here."

The other man turns to pick the canister up, but he cannot approach it. Between him and the fuel is a Raticate, teeth bared, mouth frothing, eyes _glowing_ in the night. It hisses and the man just groans.

"Maybe we can light that thing up while we're at it, huh?"

The witch feels hot.

"The hell is going on here, man? It's like everything we're trying to do is goin' wrong." Pause. Processing. A snicker. "Hey, witch! Fuck off! We're busy!"

The witch does not like visitors.

It does not like visitors.

It screeches in frustration. Covered ears do nothing to defend from the auditory assault. It intends to deafen them. Blind them. Remove them from the tangible realm, do not touch, do not feel, their corporeal forms are undeserved when so willfully they carry the intent to harm.

The witch does not think. It acts. Elsewhere, it is on fire. It hears laughter.

Here, it hears screaming, whimpering noises below its own cries.

Humans feel warm. It learned this when it first started to reach out to travelers but never fully processed the feeling until it was pressed to touch a human more fervently. Their skin is warmer than the air often times, their breath is hot. Their blood is warm and sticky.

There is a particularly surprising scent to humans. Pokémon notice the scent immediately. So too does the witch, though it senses its visitors more through their speech or the vibrations of their feet against the earth. They smell strange. Some of them smell like lavender and some of coffee, some of sweat and some of not a whole lot of anything other than human. Blood smells metallic.

Blood smells familiar.

They sound different, every human sounds different. Such a peculiar sound when they scream. More peculiar still when they scream as they drown above any water, drown in themselves. It has never tasted blood but they spit it out and gasp for air. Perhaps it's a bitter flavor.

It does not like to touch humans. It will only hold Green and hold him close, kiss him, run its fingers through his hair. It likes Green. It is very tender when it touches him because it loves him. It loves Green. It cannot say the same for tonight's visitors. It cannot say it likes them and it cannot say it is gentle.

The sound of its defense (its assault) reminds it of a Pokémon tearing apart its food, Pidgeotto ripping up Magikarp to feast upon, Caterpie gifted to the Pidgey who are too young still to hunt for fresh meat. It is a wet, ripping sound. Flesh is flesh. The difference is that the witch does not intend to eat the flesh it rips from the humans.

These humans are not_ prey._ They are merely a threat. The Spearow will feast instead. They are scavengers.

It is so, so hot.

The witch is perhaps not fully aware of its actions; this is instinct, unfortunately. It is unaware of its place in space and time because it is not fully tethered to this earthly realm which it protects. Ironic, perhaps, that it is something so far removed from reality and yet it is the defender of the unabashedly extant forest.

It is not aware of the oil in the trees, that the remaining men are cheering. It is not aware of the sharp hissing growl it emits, nor is it aware of the way its own branches knot around each other, twirling, twisting, as if grown in irradiated soil.

It is not aware of the screams when they begin anew. It is not aware of the smell of burning flesh.

It is only aware of the way the flaming trees bow around the arsonists. It is only aware of the trees.

It is a tree. It is only a tree.

It is a poetic justice but it is not one the witch can appreciate. It has no lucidity in this moment, no concern for anything other than the forest's survival.

Humans can see karma where it lies. They like to find meaning in things. They like reading between lines to interpret and misinterpret their circumstances. A lost battle is interpreted as a personal failing, is misinterpreted as foul play. The Pokémon that lost sees it merely as a troublesome encounter. Perhaps the Pokémon would merely think of its next meal, or wonder if its trainer will play with it again today. Pokémon do not read so deeply into reality that they destroy the one in which they live.

So too is the witch illiterate, in some moments, intersection between human and not. Sometimes it reaches for its hat that it does not have, sometimes it caresses its lover's cheek and compares him to honey and amber and sunlight and warmth. Sometimes it bares its teeth and screams and bites and tears and kills.

The witch does not like to think about death.

When it is lucid, the witch weeps.

——

There's smoke.

Green got the call around the same time as Leaf did, _hurry up and check Viridian Forest, there's been a fire, something something,_ Green was still shaking off the sleep and the rest of Lance's phone call was lost to the dreams he was still escaping. Leaf called right after, _I'm at your door, get your ass out here, we've got work to do,_ and now they're walking toward the forest in the middle of the night and he's just barely zipped his coat when he sees the smoke.

"...why are we getting called for a forest fire? We're no wildlife department."

"Not for the fire, Green, for the _arson. _It was arson, and we're looking for victims."

"We're sure there's victims?"

"We're not, no. That's the problem."

Green is no stranger to the forest; at this point, it feels like a second home. He has no reservations about traversing it at night, either, and that; that's exactly why Lance ended up pulling him for this particular excursion. Leaf can keep a clear head about her when she's exploring the woods too. Between that and the fact that she's the closest gym leader to the fire, she's been given the same task, it seems.

"So, uh, run this all by me again one more time?"

"Four people went missing out here earlier tonight," Leaf recaps. "They seemed at least somewhat intoxicated, but not to the point where they should be lost out here. We had a few reports of screams, and then smoke, so we're assuming it's a case of arson, but the fact that they didn't come back out is bad news. Lance is worried that their deaths will look bad on our part. Eyewitness says they were gym challengers; older ones, but challengers nonetheless. They went in there and things went downhill."

Green sighs. "I mean, did they really expect all to go well when they were starting a forest fire?"

"I mean, we're worried they're _dead, _Green. Not just hurt. Dead."

Shit. "Oh. Okay, that's... bad. That's worse than I thought."

"Yeah." Pause. "Look, if they just got scuffed up, I'll call it karma, but if they're dead out here, that could be on _my_ head, because _I'm_ Viridian's gym leader. You could get an earful too," she warns, "since you're the _Champion,_ and you live in Viridian City."

He sighs again, more nervously this time. "I know, I know, I figure. What's Lance expecting us to do, though? How does he think we're gonna handle the PR end of this if we _do_ find something bad?"

"We're gonna find _something_ bad, no matter what. At least a fire. He says he'll handle PR, though, that's why he asked us to go out and get a look before anyone else has a chance to misconstrue the details."

"...doesn't that kinda incriminate us?"

"Well, _you_ are our Champion, so whatever you say, people will believe. You could kill a man and get off scot-free."

"Mm." Convenient, Green thinks, but it's a bit harrowing to consider. The fact that he might have to report several deaths in the woods that he frequents... even reporting injuries makes him feel a little queasy. He can handle Pokémon battles just fine, that's one kind of conflict, one type of first-aid, he could heal his Pokémon by hand if he had to, but... he doesn't like fires, in particular. Too hot. Too smokey. It's, it's...

He needs to focus. He _can't_ focus.

He's worried about Red, too, that's also keeping him distracted. God forbid _that_ be his priority right now, he knows, he's supposed to be focusing on the actual humans, whatever. There's still a part of him that fears whatever happened to Red, though. He's inseparably tethered to this forest, intertwined with every branch and leaf and vine. Green can't help but wonder if Red is hurt, and if he sought shelter from the fire, or if he tried to stop it somehow, or... or what. What would Red even do? As far as Green knows, there's never been a major fire in Viridian Forest.

Those worries might just have to wait, though. If the forest hasn't totally burned to the ground, then Red should be safe _somewhere_ out there. He may be hurt, perhaps, but, but Green can sort that out later, somehow. It'll be fine. It's gonna be fine.

Maybe.

By the time they enter the forest, Green is starting to cough on the smoke. It's still pitch-black out, too dark to really see where he's going without a flashlight, and his phone is only half-charged, so -

"Here."

"Huh?"

Leaf hands him a flashlight, as if on cue, along with a face mask and a walkie-talkie. "So you don't run around blind or breathe in ash. Use the walkie if you find anything substantial."

"Sure thing, but hell, Lance couldn't afford to give you a better walkie-talkie, or what?"

She laughs a bit. "We usually just use these around the gym. They're old, but pretty reliable, and they've got a good range on them. It'll have to do. Now," her tone shifts back to something intense, "there's two sites where eyewitnesses said they saw smoke rising, pretty much parallel to one another, from the sound of it. The first fire must be out, since it's not smoking anymore, so I'm gonna send you that way."

Green glares a bit. "What, you think I can't handle more than that?"

"I _know_ you can't. I know you don't like fires."

"...fair point." Green puts the mask on, and Leaf follows his movements, still trekking ahead. Green follows along groggily, but he's feeling _somewhat_ more alert, at least. The adrenaline is starting to kick in.

"We're gonna travel up this way, another ten minutes, then I'm gonna have you move east. Do you need a compass?"

"Nah, trust me, I know this place."

"I figured as much." Pause. "What do you do out here all the time, anyway?"

Green shrugs. "I just walk around. It's nice out here."

"Mhm." Pause. "Well, hopefully this doesn't ruin your walks from now on."

Green manages a nervous laugh at that. "We can only hope, eh? That oughta be the least of your worries, man."

"Dude, come on. We're friends, of course I'm gonna be a little worried about you."

Green's nerves ease a little, just a little. "Now's not the time to be sappy."

"Shut up. I'll be as sappy as I wanna be. You're like the dumb little brother I never had."

Green rolls his eyes. "Whatever, dude. Let's hurry up, I don't wanna be stuck out here longer than we need to be. Smoke's not good for us, even with the masks."

"Mmhm. Less talk, more walk."

And that's that, for now.

The two of them trek deeper into the woods; the smoke plumes are getting more dense as they carry on. The wind is blowing east, with some south-east gusts, so it must be thickest at the fork where they'll split off. It's starting to feel pretty eerie, though, the way the only sound in the forest right now is the wind. It's not usually this quiet at night, but Green can only assume all the Pokémon have run for cover, fearing the worst. Still, it's... he doesn't like this scene. The ash falls like snowflakes and the smoke pools around them like early morning fog. He hasn't been this close to a fire since he was a kid.

...he's not sure if he'll panic if he finds the trees burning, or what.

It's only now that he and Leaf split up that the childhood fear starts to sink back in. Any reasonable kid would shink into themselves if they woke up to their house in flames, but he still feels dumb for being afraid at all. _You're not even in the fire this time. There's nothing to be scared of, idiot._

"...Red?"

Green usually stops to wait for an answer, but he keeps moving this time. He really doesn't wanna be out here for much longer.

"Red, if you're okay, just, just lemme know somehow, okay?" No answer. "I'm worried about you. This can't be fun for you, huh?"

A gust of wind hits him from behind. Green turns back but he sees nothing, because of _course_ he sees nothing, Red likes to stay hidden for awhile before he reveals himself. It's almost like a game of hide and seek, in a way, but Green can't even tell if Red is hiding this time or if he's imagining things.

"...I really hope you're okay." Pause. Something smells rotten. "Just hope _everything_ is okay, too. I don't wanna know how many Pokémon died in that fire... I just - "

Something runs past Green's feet and he almost screams.

"Wh-What - what the - ?!"

Hyperventilating behind a mask doesn't feel good, that's what Green's learned today. He's also learned that apparently, not every Pikachu in this forest is a skittish mess.

"...d-don't do that to me, please."

_"Pii."_

The Pikachu just stares up at Green, and Green just... stares back. This might be Red, in some way. Might also just be a Pikachu. It's hard to tell when his head is still fuzzy with anxiety and his chest feels tight.

"Where'd you come from?"

_"Kaa pi."_

The Pikachu runs up a ways, away from the smoke, and Green follows it, wondering if perhaps it's going to lead him to the site of the extinguished fire, or if it's just running to wherever Pokémon go to shelter from danger. The smog has been thinning out somewhat since he left Leaf for the smaller plume of smoke, but ashes are starting to dance in the air again, ever so slightly.

The smell is getting worse. Green goes to cover his face but he just kinda smacks his mask and that does him no good.

"Is that your dinner I'm smelling?" he asks the Pikachu. Usually they aren't carnivorous, but sometimes Pikachu will scavenge the already-scavenged meat from a nest of Spearow. "I'm surprised that kind of thing smells good to you."

_"Pika."_

The Pikachu breaks off from the trail and runs into a den. Green cannot follow a Pikachu into a Pikachu-sized den.

"...alright, thanks." No answer. Fuck. He starts to backtrack but there's more smoke in the air now somehow, maybe the winds changed but it feels weirdly dense around here. It's starting to make his eyes sting and it's hard for the flashlight to really do its job when it has to cut through the smog _and_ the shadows. The smell is getting worse. It feels like the night is getting darker.

Just feels wrong.

"I don't like this, Red."

_Then go home._

"Not until I know if you're safe." Thank fuck, he's answering. Green never thought he'd be more relieved to hear a disembodied voice in his head. "What happened?"

Red doesn't answer. Even with the smoke blowing in his face, Green manages to look up at the trees. There's little more than broken vines, seemingly torn, as if something had been ripped _off_ of them.

"What... you usually hang dolls from these, don't you?" No answer. "Did they tear 'em off?"

_Go home._

"...not until I know what happened, Red."

It makes sense now, Green thinks. The Pikachu leading him off the trail, smoke blurring his vision, stick idols ripped off their nooses and tossed away; Red is trying to keep Green away from the site of the arson. Why, though?

"Red, I'll be fine. Let me see what happened, then I'll go home, and it'll be okay. It's gonna be okay."

Red doesn't answer.

"Okay? You trust me?"

Green swings the flashlight around the ground. He can manage to see Spearow tracks in the ash, but the line of soot cuts off abruptly, as if - as if the ashes were deliberately planted here, as if -

"Red, what the hell is going on?" Silence. "Red!"

With no further answer, Green just treks forward still, into the clearing, past every single signal telling him to _turn back -_

Oh god.

Oh _god._

He almost vomits into his mask, and then he stumbles as far as he can before he actually _does_ vomit, just rips the mask off and keels over and comes undone on the forest floor.

"I didn't... Didn't see that. Didn't see that. Didn't see that."

There's two of them, two men - or rather, corpses - or rather, rather - they're - they're fucking torn _apart._ The one's stomach is just _open_ and the other's arms are on the other side of the clearing from the rest of his body. Both their throats are slit open. One of their heads was facing him and his eyes were missing.

That's all he saw before he bolted but the smell, the fucking _smell,_ he thought it was bad before but, but - didn't see that, he can't - sometimes things die in the woods and he thought it was just that but, but they - they were - they're -

"No, no, no, no, I can't, I can't _I can't - "_

He can't even think. He just - he didn't see that, he can't, no, no, _no - _

His legs feel like gelatin but Green still manages to sprint a decent length away from the scene of the crime. _Crime?_ No, no, that's not a good enough description. This is a massacre. That is a massacre.

Pokémon don't attack like that. The realization hits him out of nowhere and he feels even more sick, now.

"L-Leaf? You there? Over." Green's voice shudders when he speaks into the walkie-talkie.

"I read you loud and clear. What'd you find? Over."

Green struggles to catch his breath. Struggles to even process if he saw what he saw. He'd denied it at first but the image is stuck in his mind and he feels like he - he did see that. Didn't want to, but he did. He doesn't need to - doesn't _want_ to turn and confirm that there's two mangled corpses, though, no. He can still smell them from here.

"...two bodies." Pause. "Th-There's two dead bodies over here. They're mangled. O-Over."

"What do you mean by mangled? Over."

"M-Missing limbs. Eyes." He wants to puke again. "O-Over."

Leaf hesitates to respond for so long that he fears she's lost connection. "What?"

Green can't answer. He nearly heaves again but his stomach is already empty.

"Green? Do you read me? Over."

"I read - j-just get over here. Over."

Green manages to pull himself to his feet, goes to put his mask back on, but he left it back there when he ran and he's - he doesn't wanna go back for it. He opts to pull his jacket over his face, desperate to keep the stench of death out of his lungs. He's never surprised when he hears about people going _missing_ out here but no one has ever been _found_ like this and he'd never - he couldn't have imagined anyone meeting a fate like _this,_ couldn't imagine something so _brutal,_ he couldn't - couldn't -

His head is reeling. Pokémon don't attack like that.

Red... Red could. Red told him to go home. Red didn't want him to see this, so, so, did he...?

No. No way, right? Red isn't this brutal. Red is so sweet. Green doesn't believe he did this, but he doesn't know what else could've done something this savage.

It takes another fifteen minutes for Leaf to catch up to his location. He only knows she's nearby because he hears a very loud _oh fuck_ from the clearing, and then a stream of _fuck fuck fuck oh god what the hell happened here -_

"Green!" Leaf _shrieks,_ she is not easily scared or grossed out but she _shrieks._ "Where are you?!"

Green pulls himself to his feet, stumbles toward the bloodbath, and that's all he remembers, that's as far as he gets before he just straight-up _faints. _Whether it's the disgust or the fear or the sudden crash of adrenaline, Green doesn't know, but he's honestly thankful to just - to not have to face this again. He doesn't want to see it again. He _can't._

He didn't see it. _He didn't see it. _

He smells chamomile tea before he loses consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i uh.  
i'm gonna be honest, i don't know how i managed to write this one, let alone make it this long  
and yet does Green still have dubious romantic taste even knowing that Red is capable of committing grizzly murders? yes. absolutely. he's got one braincell and he's using it to love Red.


	5. eyes wide shut

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _It's an unfortunate, self-imposed fugue._

"Green?"

"I didn't see anything."

"Green, please."

"I didn't see_ anything."_

The man sighs and the honey boy does not move.

They are at the Pokémon League. Red has never been here before. It's typically too far from home for him to travel but Green collapsed in the forest and Red felt himself burning hotter than the fire when it happened; guilt burns hotter than gasoline. He had half a mind not to follow Green at all, to leave his honey boy alone, he's caused enough damage. Green has been hurt enough by him and his actions, motions that Red barely remembers, but he knows they were his own, they are his own. Pokémon do not often remember the events of attacking prey, no, they do not wallow in guilt. It is merely instinct and it is automatic. They attack because they must. They know they are _meant_ to attack when their dens are threatened by Arbok, when their nests are under raid from Fearow circling overhead.

The humans were not prey. They were predators. They were predators encroaching on the witch's nest, and the witch responded as any Pokémon would.

Red is not a human. He wonders if Green forgot that at some point.

He wonders what this changes. He wonders if Green will ever want to face him again. Perhaps, at the very least, it is better to be hated than forgotten.

"Green, you need to cooperate with us," the man insists. He runs his hands through his spiked red hair, exasperated, clearly, but persistent nonetheless. "I know you saw _something_ out there. I need you to tell me what it was." Green does not answer him. He is still, knees curled up to his chest in the chair. Sometimes he's been resting his forehead on his knees so he doesn't need to see the world, sometimes he's looked up and around and nothing in particular, dazed, confused, lost between thoughts that he refuses to articulate.

Leaf - the girl with the hat, his friend - she knows what Green saw. So too does Red. It's the man who needs his testimony now but it seems Green does not know - does not _want_ to know - what he saw. Rather, he claims he saw nothing at all, and there is no testimony to give. He saw nothing. He did not want to see anything.

Green shivers. Red feels his heart sink.

"Green, let's... let's just talk about what happened tonight, okay? We'll take it step by step."

"Didn't see anything."

"Green, no, please. We're starting from square one, alright?"

"...didn't..."

Red is watching from the potted ivy on the wall behind Green. The Pokémon League is decorated with abundant flora, all hardy specimens, green enough to make the space feel a bit more elegant than its stone walls alone. It is a fruitless endeavor, he feels, because he knows just as well as anyone that this is not a natural space, and the plants do little to mask that fact. The tiles smell heavily of cleaning products and the absence of Pokémon cries and bugs prove this is no natural world. He wonders if the humans feel the same or if they're simply enamored when they see plant life indoors, out of their natural element. He wonders if they notice how some leaves brown due to infrequent waterings.

"We're starting from when you woke up this morning, alright?" The man's voice is low, not quite tender but something adjacent. "Tell me everything that happened from the moment I called you to the moment you walked out of your apartment."

Green hesitates, but when he does speak, he speaks just above a whisper. It is an odd tone of voice on him when he is around coworkers. He does not like to sound vulnerable, Red knew that from the moment they met. It's why he only sings childhood songs to himself in the forest when no one can hear, that's the only place where he coos to his Eevee, only place where he talks to himself (to the witch) about his troubles and woes and hopes and dreams.

He is vulnerable here, though. He is too shocked to hide it. Too shocked to have seen anything. 

"...you called. Said there was a fire, check it out. I kinda missed the rest of that. I was tired." Pause. "Leaf called. Said she was outside. I got dressed, went out."

The man is writing Green's words down. Green does not move and he does not offer any further testimony.

"What happened when you went outside?"

"Met Leaf. Went toward Viridian Forest." And it is now that the witch realizes Green is speaking in bullet points, he's talking as if he's writing his experiences down. Red has seen him journal like that before, it's something he does to try and process his own experiences. He's still processing what he saw, perhaps. He certainly doesn't _want_ to process what he saw, but perhaps he'll admit it, and perhaps he'll never enter the forest again.

Red warned him that he should go home. He should have been more persuasive.

"I asked her what was up, 'cause I was tired. Didn't really take it all in the first time. She explained. We went into the forest."

"What did she explain, Green?"

Another moment's hesitation. "Arson. Victims, maybe. Something about PR."

The man nods. "Carry on."

Green does not carry on. He sighs deeply, leans his head back against the wall. A strand of ivy tangles itself in his hair and he makes no move to brush it away. It is as much as Red can do in this moment.

"Went in."

"Into the forest?"

"Yeah."

"What did you do once you were in the forest?"

"Walked."

"Where did you walk?"

"North. Toward Pewter." Pause. "Then split off. She went west, I went east."

And the verbal journal ends abruptly here.

"I didn't see anything out there."

"Green..."

"I didn't see anything." His voice trembles.

"Lance, give him a few days," Leaf finally interjects, putting an abrupt end to the man's interrogation - _Lance,_ is it? "He's not coping well enough to do this right now."

"Well, we found the bodies, Leaf. I need him to confirm what you saw so we can make a formal report. Our only alternative would be covering up the deaths for now if you're our only witness, and that reflects much worse on us than admitting to what you found."

"You really don't understand how bad it was, do you?" Leaf raises her voice. Green sinks into his chair. The ivy vine still clings to his hair. "I told you, on my side of the search, I could... I could smell it, but I couldn't get close enough through the flames. I called Lapras out to stop the fire, or at least stall it 'til the fire department got out there, and then Green called me before I could get any closer to the bodies."

"And they were in the fire?"

"As best as I could see, yeah."

"And they weren't alive, were they?"

"If they were, I would've tried to save them, but they couldn't have been alive, at that rate. They didn't _smell_ alive, anyway..."

Humans have a particular scent. Cooked meat smells like cooked meat, though. Perhaps it smells different to the humans, but if it is up to the witch, he can't tell the difference.

"I... I see." Lance pales.

"I know, that's a gross way to describe it, but I dunno what else to tell you. That's just - you'd understand if you were there."

"Do you expect me to go out there for myself?"

"I mean, maybe. If you can corroborate what we saw, that'd be helpful. It was just the two of us out there, and Green's struggling, so..."

"I see..."

Red does not intend to, but he can, and he desperately wants, and so he does; he exits the ivy and burrows into the tree bark he'd gifted to Green some weeks back. It is embedded still into his wrist, intended more for Red to _hear_ him, but it is forest life in itself and so Red can use it as a sort of vessel. He's admittedly not sure if it will exhaust Green anymore than he already is, but... unfortunately, the only way to know is to try. Feels warm in here. He can sense Green's stomach churning and his heart racing and he can hear the internal monologuing _I didn't see it_ playing on loop.

He hopes his presence doesn't hurt his honey boy any more than he already has. He's done enough damage.

"Green," Lance starts quietly, looking back at Green, "did you get to where the second smoke plume was?"

"I... dunno. I didn't see anything." Pause. "M-Maybe I passed it."

"Can you tell me what you _did_ see? Ashes? Pokémon?" Leaf already told Lance to back off, but Green is breathing a bit easier, thinking of anything other than the mauled corpses, and maybe this is actually working for him, maybe Green will admit to Lance what he saw. Maybe he'll admit it to himself.

And if he does, perhaps he will fear Red, and that will be the end of them.

Red wouldn't blame him.

"Saw... just... trees. Trees, Pokémon. Spearow tracks in the ash. A Pikachu." Pause. "One of those..."

_One of those stick dolls,_ he thinks, Red can hear it, but Green doesn't actually finish the thought. Something seems to click, Red can feel it, and Green just shakes his head.

"One of those old Beedrill nests," is what he opts to say, and there's no reason not to believe him. "That's all."

"Did you call Leaf at any point?"

"Yeah."

"Why?" No answer. "Green, why?"

Because he saw something that he couldn't face alone. That's why.

Or, more simply, _I got scared. _He admits it to himself but to no one else.

Red feels Green's body tense, senses the way his mind starts to race, head spins, chest aches. Green gets up suddenly, walks toward the door, stumbles a bit as he tries to walk off the head-rush. "I saw it, okay?"

"Green - "

"Don't ask me again."

He slams the door behind him, running through the halls. _I didn't see it I didn't see it I didn't see it_ muttered under his breath as he runs, as much as he can speak while he's at a full-on sprint. He's swift but his lungs ache and his legs feel too soft to even run, feels like a dream-like state he's in. Red doesn't even know where he intends to go, at this rate. He doesn't know these walls, they are perhaps charted by human eyes but for Red it is difficult to imagine how the building could be arranged. There is no natural order in here and it makes him feel blind. Makes him feel scared.

Hah. As if he's the one who should be afraid. As if he isn't the biggest threat in this place.

He relies on Green, sweet sunbeam, to lead him through the concrete woods. The room Green lands on is lined with scattered white curtains hanging from the ceiling like ghosts, with thin beds laid out on a grid, each hidden between the curtains. He doesn't know what this room is. It isn't a bedroom but it is a room of beds. Green seems to treat it like a bedroom, though, as he parts a set of curtains and lays down on the bed and just - just - he burrows his head into the thin pillow, and he shivers, and Red feels the same ache in his chest.

"I didn't see it, I didn't see it, I didn't see it, I didn't see it, I didn't... didn't..."

Green sobs. Red wants to weep with him. Red wants to hold him and comfort him and promise him that everything is going to be okay, it's all okay, he promises that everything is just fine, really, _really,_ but he cannot bare to face Green when he knows he'll be rejected.

_Pokémon don't attack like this. Red could._

It was one of the last thoughts Green had before he passed out - before Red put him to sleep, rather, he didn't want Green thinking about it anymore. It could've been a selfless endeavor to keep Green from experiencing any deeper trauma than he already had, could've been a selfish desire for Red to hide his own brutality, _please trust me anyway, please love me anyway,_ he's not entirely sure which logic pushed him to put Green to sleep. Maybe it was both, but he's not calm enough to analyze himself like that right now. Can't really think about anything right now. So close to Green and so too is the pain. The bark and Green and Red, they're all so deeply intertwined but Green is the one so overwhelmingly emotional, and it is Green's emotions that blur out Red's own thoughts.

He cannot think. He just wants to hold Green.

It would be a bad idea, to act on that impulse in a place where they could be discovered, and so Red resigns himself to lurking among Green in this incorporeal void while Green weeps and Red wants to wither for having hurt Green at all.

Perhaps he should have just let himself burn.

Red waits and wails in his mind as Green collapses in his own. It isn't until Green finally reconvenes with the others that he says _I'm going home, yes I saw it, no Pokémon don't attack like that, yes his arms were ripped off, no I don't wanna talk about it anymore,_ and then he flies away on his Pidgeot and the motions thereafter are blurry and inconclusive.

Inconclusive. Green has said what he needed to say for the "P-R," but only for the sake of saying it. There was no finality to it, Red could tell, because Leaf and Lance had look at each other with a certain resignation of _good enough, at least he's admitting it,_ but Red feels even they could tell Green didn't want to believe himself when he said _I saw it._

It's an unfortunate, self-imposed fugue. Green either believes he didn't see anything, or he just... doesn't _want_ to belive. Delusion or denial. He's not sure which is worse for his honey boy.

When Green enters his apartment again, he throws himself onto his own bed. His Eevee is waiting diligently for him at the side of the mattress, and she hops up to greet him, blissfully unaware of the chaos.

Oh, to be as unaware as she is. To be as unaware as Green.

Red wonders if Green knows he is in denial.

* * *

Green is very well aware that he is in denial.

Green is an escapist, to a hell of a fault, sure, but it's the only way he really knows how to cope. Hence, it's nearly four in the afternoon when he finally wakes up, when his sleep-induced escape shatters, when his body betrays him in search of water or food or something. Green _wanted_ to sleep until the sun went down, but Vivi is nudging his hand, whimpering quietly. He never sleeps this late, so of course she'd be worried; hell, he doesn't even wake up later than ten in the morning on his days off. He's the kind of guy to rise and set with the sun, is all, save for the occasional poorly-timed nap.

Either she's worried, or she's just getting hungry. He did remember to give her breakfast before he hid from his memories in his dreams, but it's nearing dinner time for her. 

"Evoi... voi?" She bumps her head against his face, and he finally stirs.

"H-hey, Vivi." He hates how his voice shudders when he speaks. Hates feeling this weak. "You hungry?"

"Evo..." Her ears flop down, and she rubs her head against his hand. _I'm worried,_ is what that seems to mean. He doesn't speak Pokémon but that tends to be a sign of concern.

"J-Just been a long day. Night. Whatever. It's fine, I'm alright." She's unconvinced, it seems. Vivi clambers under Green's arm and nuzzles against his chest. "It's okay, girl, really. I promise."

"Evo voi."

"I know, I know." He kisses her soft little head, feels a little easier having done so. She's not a trained service Pokémon, but Green feels she may as well be.

With the comfort of his trusty Eevee, Green tries, kinda fails to accept the events of his past waking hours. He knows what he saw but he doesn't - he didn't see it. He did. He didn't. He _did._ He doesn't know why it's so hard to accept it, beyond the obvious shock, but... hell, maybe it _is_ just the shock of it all that's forcing him to deny having seen anything at all, maybe that's all there is to it. When he laid back down in bed this morning after being questioned by Lance, he remembers telling himself _this is a dream go to bed wake up it's fine it didn't happen_, but he's failed to fully convince himself of that.

Maybe it was the smell. He could've pretended he hallucinated the scene if it weren't for the smell. He's smelled decaying Pokémon in the forest before, things live there and so they eventually die there too, whatever, that's the circle of life. He's never smelled that much raw _meat_ before and it...

Ew. He doesn't like that he just thought of humans as _meat._ That's kinda what it looked like, though. They didn't look fully human in some spots. Torn up. Meat.

"I didn't see it."

He didn't see it. For his sanity's sake, he didn't see _anything._

"Evo?"

"Huh?"

Vivi crawls away from Green and bounces over to the edge of the bed, and then she barks and hops right off, darting out into the living room. He'd figure she just _really_ wants dinner, but she usually turns back and wags her tail at him to make sure he'll follow her, so this is something else, isn't it?

"What is it, girl?"

"Evoi voi!" She barks, almost purrs at... something. It's a strange enough reaction that Green pulls himself out bed, heavy as he feels, and walks into the living room.

"What the matter, Vivi?"

"Voii!"

There's a stray Pikachu sitting in the middle of the room, nearly motionless, staring right at Green. Its tail barely twitches but it flinches and curls up when Green tries to approach.

"How'd you get in here?" Green asks, keeping his voice soft, gentle. It's a tone he uses with all the wild Pokémon he meets, especially with the ones who get into his apartment. Sometimes he leaves his windows open when it's nice out and he'll wake up to a Pidgey perched on the headboard of his bed, but he's not sure how this one made its way inside. "Are you lost?"

"Pii..." Poor thing sounds nervous. It shakes its head as if it understood him, though, which is... not unheard of, but it is odd.

"You're _not _lost? Do you just wanna hang out?" He wonders... "Are you the one I saw in the forest last night? Did you lose your den?"

The little mouse trembles, then suddenly darts under the couch. Figures.

"Hey, come back here!" Green can't help but laugh a little, skittish as the poor thing is. Pikachu have always been funny Pokémon to him, they're a little fickle and full of personality. "It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you. No one's gonna get hurt."

Green lays down against the floor to look under the couch, trying to give a reassuring smile, but he worries the fatigue is pretty obvious nonetheless. The Pikachu just peers out from under the couch, ears flattened defensively against its head.

"It's okay. You wanna come out now?"

"Pika!"

Pikachu are electric type Pokémon. When they feel scared, or angry, or... or just about anything, actually, they emit electricity. They'll usually zap anything within a few meters of them if they're feeling particularly threatened, though, Green's no stranger to that and he's willing to take a bit of a zap to the face if it means eventually getting this one to settle down. It's fine, really. It's normal.

It's not normal for a Pikachu to squeak like that and emit a burst of pollen like a Bulbasaur. Pikachu can't learn any grass-type moves.

...it smells like chamomile.

"Red?"

The Pikachu whimpers and curls into a ball. That's enough of a giveaway for Green, though. He's not sure exactly _why_ but the way the mouse shivers and hides his face in his paws, it just _feels_ like Red.

_Pokémon do not attack like that. Red could._

...Red wouldn't. At the very least, Red wouldn't unless he had no other choice. He didn't hurt Leaf or Misty or Brock when they were out there looking for Brock's ID, either, Red didn't hurt them. Red didn't hurt them so Green trusts that he _won't._

Maybe it's a gross oversimplification, but Green's mind is still bogged down with voluntary fugue and fatigue and stress and the bubbling trauma he's already repressing. He can't... can't really reason with himself otherwise. Red hasn't hurt him yet and so Green trusts that Red _won't_ hurt him, and that's reasonable enough in his tired eyes.

They were shredded and left for dead. Green still loves Red. He's not sure how those thoughts will ever reconcile with one another.

"Come on out, Red." No answer. "Please?"

He waits another few minutes before Red, still in this little mouse's form, crawls out from underneath the couch. His tail is tucked and his ears are flopped against his head and he looks like he might cry.

"It's okay."

It's all in one fluid movement that Green scoops Red up, holds him against his chest, stands and rocks him in his arms. _It's o__kay_ may not be the best way to respond to the fires or the deaths or the fact that he can't face the reality of it all, but it's enough to describe this moment, this space and this time in this little apartment. Everything is okay in here, and that's all that matters. If he's not running from his worries, he can still only worry about one thing at a time. 

"It's okay." Red whimpers. "Shh, it's okay, it's okay, I promise." He kisses Red's head and Red kinda shudders, butts his head into Green's chest. "Everything's okay here. We're alright, it's - "

"Pika ka!" _I'm sorry,_ wept under the squeak, Green can barely hear it in his head but it's audible enough to catch. _I'm sorry._

"I know, I know. It's alright."

_Not._

"You stop that, Red. It _is_ okay. I understand."

And he _does_ understand, whether that empathy is misplaced or not. Maybe disembowelment would be a vast overreaction if Red were a human, maybe unheard of for a Pokémon, but... Look, Green doesn't have a justification, really, doesn't have a clean way to say _no, really, this was a reasonable response,_ but -

_You are too forgiving._

"Maybe." He loves Red. It's perhaps the most misguided reason to forgive someone, but he loves Red and _only_ Red and he has a feeling that, that maybe - "You didn't mean to do that, though, did you?"

Red does not answer with words. He chatters a little and rubs his head against Green's chest. He's trying to burrow; Pikachu tend to dig holes and hide when they feel scared. "You were scared, huh? That'd scare me, too. I'm just glad you're safe."

No more answers come from Red. Green pets his back, then scratches behind Red's ears, and it's a little weird doing this knowing Red's usual form is more humanoid, but the way Red purrs and melts in his arms has the same sentiment of _this is nice, I like being with you,_ the through-line is still there.

_Sorry._

"It's okay, Red."

_It's not._ It's getting hard to argue Red's protests. Green is still too groggy to make a proper defense. It just feels right to forgive him.

"Let's... let's not worry about this right now." Green carries Red back to his bedroom, lays him down on the bed, pulls the blankets over him. "It's been a long night for us both, especially you, huh? You just take a nap, alright? You need some rest."

"Pii... pika - "

"Shhh, no no no. Nap time." Green strokes his fur, and he can tell Red is struggling to keep his eyes open. "You just rest. We'll figure this all out later, okay?"

Red'e eyes flutter shut. Green sits with him until his breathing evens out to a slow, steady drone.

"...evoi?"

"Yeah, I know. Dinner time, right?" Green's voice is soft, and Vivi's bark is fairly quiet herself.

He feeds Vivi before he feeds himself, and even then, he barely finishes his dinner. He's still too queasy from just... just everything. He just wants to lay back down and go to sleep again. He feels like he could, honestly. It'll be a boring day for his Pokémon, but even they need a day to rest, he feels. Little blessings in disguise, he supposes. Always a silver lining. Sleeping off the trauma? Free vacation day.

It's some hours later when Green finally goes to lay back down, and Red is in his regular form again. His hood is down for once and his hair still looks fluffy, his face looks soft; his looks betray the power that lies deep inside him. Green knows this, and yet he's still smitten to see him breathing softly, clinging to the blankets.

The branches on his back are less branches this time and more just clusters of flowers - amaranth, he thinks. _Love lies bleeding,_ to be precise.

Fitting.

Green lays down next to Red without a second thought. He holds him close and though Red seems to be fast asleep, his vines still wrap around Green and pin him close, as if Green would run, as if Red is desperate to keep him close enough to feel.

Green isn't going anywhere, though. He loves Red too much to let him go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> local Green is in denial, more at 11  
fun fact, love lies bleeding is a plant that symbolizes hopeless love! [points at Green] and look at this guy! [pats his head] he can fit so much love-induced denial in him!  
i have no idea where this fic goes next btw so the next update will be just as much a surprise to me as it'll be to you


	6. lukewarm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _He's greeted with the sight of Leaf, whose expression immediately drops from neutral to concerned._   
_"You look like shit."_   
_"Thank you."_

He's barely awake when the sun rises.

It's a pleasant enough morning,  _ normal _ enough, normal is all he needs right now. He feels sunlight dancing across his face, no doubt filtering beautifully through the sheer curtains of his window, but he pays it no real mind, barely even stirs in bed. It's too peaceful to consider getting up just yet, with little more than a breeze from outside to fill the silence of his bedroom. It's lulling him back to sleep and honestly, he might just give in. He's feeling groggy and a little bit like jelly and a little light-headed and... oh goddamn it, is he getting sick? Now is not the time to have a cold. 

Green groans. He almost never gets sick in autumn; it's always winter that does him in. He thinks it might be the air, probably, too harsh and cold, too rough on his throat. Every time his throat hurts one thing leads to another and it's all downhill for the next week or so. 

...come to think of it, he didn't feel particularly well yesterday either. He thought the sore throat was probably just because he'd screamed and cried himself out, but apparently that wasn't all. 

"Evoi!"

Green manages to sit himself up in bed, trying to shake the sleep off, but he's still yawning, sleep still clings to his eyes. Fatigue sits heavy in his chest and there's an unusual taste in his mouth and yeah, sick as hell, that's fantastic. Can stress induce illness? It's never happened before, but if that's a thing, it sure is happening now.

"Mornin', Vivi." Vivi purrs at him, nudging her head against his side. "What? You hungry?"

"Evo!"

"Alright, alright, gimme a sec."

"Vevoi! Vevoi!!"

His vision is still bleary, so if she's barking at something in particular, he's not sure what it is. "Oh, settle down, girl. It's alright." 

"Evo..." She butts her head against a lump of blankets next to Green and - ah. Right. Memories flood back into his bleary head.

Admittedly, Green is a little shocked Red didn't decide to go back into the woods during the night. He's... he's not even sure how long Red can be out of the forest before he has to go back. Maybe he can just follow Green around -  _ will _ follow Green around - for an indefinite amount of time. It's not like he minds Red's presence, no, it's just a little strange, is all, a little odd to see him still sleeping right where Green left him last night. Usually Red disappears right away, elusive as he is - elusive, or shy? Maybe both.

"G'morning, Red," Green murmurs, and Red stirs, just barely, but doesn't quite wake up. Oh well. Maybe he didn't even hear Green say anything. His voice is kinda rough and gross right now. It was barely a rush of air just now. He's gotta do something about that.

"Alright, let's get you fed, Vivi." His head swirls when he sits up. Great. Excellent. 

He's still a bit (well,  _ very) _ emotionally spent, but getting his Pokémon fed in the morning is a therapeutic experience, a sort of catharsis. It's a quiet rhythm that he rarely fucks up; anything he can do right in one shot is enjoyable by his standards. It's why being a Champion is so stressful, sometimes. He loves battling; hell, he's not even put off by the prospect of  _ losing, _ necessarily, he just... doesn't wanna do anything  _ wrong. _ If he loses his position, he wants it to be for all the right reasons, but it's impossible to promise that outcome. 

_ You're too much of a perfectionist, _ Leaf had said once.  _ You need to get over it. _

_ I will, _ Green promised, and it's been about five years since she first told him that. He's made very little progress on that front. 

Green flops down on the couch and looks up at the ceiling. He sees floaters in his vision, feels the room spin around him, fuck this was not a good time to just  _ plomp _ down like that huh -

_ Green. _

Green sits up slowly this time, still feeling off, only to see Red floating in the doorway to his bedroom. The branches on his back are still thick flowery vines more so than tree branches. 

"Hey," Green grins. Red waves. "How do you feel?" Red answers with a hollow sort of coo. That... probably means he's good? Green has yet to fully decode Red's nonverbal cues. "I'll take that as a good answer?"

"Evo evoi!"

Vivi leaps at Red, and although Green worries for a moment that she might annoy him, his eyes light up at her and he lowers himself to the ground, kneels down and lets her climb up onto his shoulders. She nibbles at one of the vines around his neck and Red just laughs a bit, a raspy sort of noise, but Green's not one to talk today.

"You'd think she's starving, with all her gnawing."

"Mm." Red does make human sounds sometimes. Green always forgets and it always startles him a bit. 

"Play nice, Vivi." She just barks and clambers up onto Red's head. He doesn't seem to mind, at least. He floats back up and the foliage on his back seems to be stiffening back into branches now. 

_ You're ill. _

Oh. He noticed. "Maybe a bit. Just, uh... just a cold. Nothing special."

_ Was it me? _

Green's genuinely a bit dumbfounded at the question. "How could it have been you?"

_ Flowers. Pollen. _

Green laughs, as much as it hurts his chest, he laughs. "You see how often I sleep out in the forest! A bunch of flowers aren't gonna hurt me, you goofball." 

Red blinks at him, looks away. He doesn't seem convinced.

"I'll be fine, honest."

Red peers back up, looks deep into Green's eyes.  _ Sounds bad. _

"It's just a sore throat, Red. Nothing to - "

_ Ashes. _

Oh. "No, no, it wasn't the ashes. It's just a cold." Red doesn't reply. "It's not just my throat, either, y'know? I know a cold when I have one, honest. I'll make some tea for my throat, get some rest, I'll be fine by the end of the week." 

Red almost chirps, that's the best way to describe the noise. Vivi squeaks in response and scuttles off his head, puffs out her tail and stares at him like she's never seen anything like him - which, true, she hasn't, but it's funny that the chirping is what makes her a bit apprehensive. 

"Oh, settle down, girl, you're fine."

Green finally pulls himself to his feet. He hears the singing Pidgey outside, notes how they sound a bit more muffled than usual. Typical for a cold on his end, but neither unbearable nor even inconvenient. The worst of it is just having a sore throat, he feels. It makes the air feel like witch burrs in his lungs, sharp and sticky all at once. He has to have tea in here somewhere, though, maybe some honey...

"Okay, okay... what's even good for a sore throat again?" 

Green murmurs that to himself, but Red appears behind him in an instant, and Green smells chamomile, and when he turns to face Red he has little white flowers blooming on his branches.

"...you're too sweet."

Red's answer is a trilling sort of purr. Green kisses him and Red kisses back and the sun feels a little warmer on his skin. 

Tastes like chamomile tea and forest air and dirt. Tastes like home. Tastes like love.

Someone knocks at the door and Red nearly  _ shrieks _ and zips off into the bedroom at breakneck speed. Poor thing.

"Vivi," Green whispers, "go check on him, okay?"

"Evoi!!" She stomps her little paws in determination and zips off after Red. Green will make up for the interrupted intimacy later, somehow. Maybe another kiss. Maybe it's a bit more for Green's own self-fulfillment than for Red, but he's not sure if the witch will mind either way.

Green throws his hoodie on, checks to make sure the bark on his wrist is hidden. The sleeves are a little short but it should be good enough, and with that, he opens the door.

He's greeted with the sight of Leaf, whose expression immediately drops from neutral to concerned.

"You look like shit."

"Thank you."

"Oh, you  _ sound _ like shit, too."

"Thank you  _ so much. _ You got anything else to criticize me for before I send you home?"

"That's all for now. Lemme in."

"Alright, fine. Just don't catch what I got."

Green yawns again, still barely awake despite having been up for... what maybe an hour? He forgot how illness makes him feel exhausted. It sucks. Sucks even more that Leaf is here and potentially going to try and interrogate him about the  _ incident _ that he's still refusing to process. He's got enough to deal with, massacre aside.

"So I'll just jump to the point," Leaf starts. "Lance told me he might drag you back to the League to answer a few follow-up questions by the end of the week, but otherwise, we're more or less in the clear, as far as testimony goes. He's just figuring out how to explain what happened, is the thing. He doesn't wanna say we don't know what happened, so the news break is kinda on the back burner." Pause. "They identified one of the victims. He was at my gym earlier this week."

"Ah." Pause. "Does - does that look bad for you?"

"It would've, if you hadn't vouched for me, and if the police didn't find what they found."  _ What they found _ being - being nothing. He didn't see anything. "Did you go out and hand-pick some flowers, or what?"

"What are you talking about?"

"On the counter." Green turns and - oh. Chamomile flowers are scattered on the kitchen counter, next to the soon to be filled kettle. "Uh, yeah. Kinda."

Leaf squints at him. He's turned away to start on his tea but he knows she's still examining him, he can just sense it. "You went back out into the forest, then?"

"No, no, I picked them on the way back from the League," is his answer. That's what he's going with? Sure. Chamomiles grow out there, right? 

"They look like you just went out and picked 'em this morning."

"Don't judge my flowers."

"I'm not. I'm just saying it's kinda suspicious."

Green's heart skips a beat. Sometimes Leaf just teases him but it seems like she's actually incredulous, and he doesn't know if he should - how he could - defend himself. He's not thinking clearly to begin with and now he has to go toe to toe with her.

"Why are you giving me such a hard time right now?"

"Because you shouldn't run around picking flowers if you're sick, dumbass." Oh. Okay. Reasonable enough. "Seriously, this is why you stay sick for so long."

"Well... fuck, I dunno." He shuffles through his drawers, stuffs a handful of blooms into a tea bag. "I don't know plants."

"Yeah you do. Look at all the plants you have in here! If you're not working or in  _ this _ forest of an apartment, you're out in Viridian Forest."

Damn it, he's stumped. He tries to busy himself by filling his electric kettle, too impatient to steep the tea in one of his more elegant kettles. "How dare you come to my home at eight in the morning expecting me to have a coherent conversation with you."

That gets a snicker out of her. "Sorry for being worried about you. It won't happen again, I promise."

"Mmh. Better not."

"Alright, Mr. Grumpy." Green sighs and just... just kinda sinks to the floor, waits for the tea to steep. The tile is cool against his skin and it feels nice. "Green?"

"I'm good. 't's comfy down here."

"Sure it is." Pause. "Did you get any rest since then?"

_ Since then,  _ she says. It's vague enough but even that sends his head back to - to nothing. He saw nothing. There was no  _ then _ because nothing happened.

...he feels a bit nauseous. No reason for it. Just the cold.

"Little bit," he answers at last. "I'm fine, though, everything is peachy."

"I hope so," she sighs a little. "I've never seen you that shaken up."

"Well… y'know."

"Yeah, I do." 

The apartment is quiet until the kettle hisses, and with that, Green pulls himself up and finishes making his tea. He nods his head over to the kitchen table, and Leaf follows, sits across from him, and for a short while they let the silence overcome them. It's still hard to talk about what they saw - which was nothing. 

It was everything.

Green has had dreamless sleeps but when he closes his eyes he can still see imprints of the mutilated bodies, sometimes he swears he can still smell them. The minute he came home after the incident, he ended up throwing out some of the leftover steak he had in the fridge, he just couldn't bear the thought of meat. He still can't. Hopefully that won't be forever but for now, he can't. It smells weird now that he knows the smell of- of - he didn't smell anything. Didn't see anything. Nothing happened.

It was nothing.

"...you really think Lance is gonna call me in before the end of the week to talk about it more?" Green asks, voice just a bit smoother from the tea. Chamomile is usually a little bitter to him but it tastes especially sweet today. He's not sure if it's the honey or if it's something about the source of the flowers.

"He said he  _ might,  _ so I have no idea," Leaf shrugs. "He's been on a roll trying to get this all sorted out, so it's kinda hard to tell. I think he probably would if he weren't running himself ragged. Right now, I think he's just trying to make sure we don't keep the incident covered for so long that it looks suspicious. He's trying to be quick about it, so if he thinks you'd slow the process down, he probably won't call."

"Right." Another sip of sweet chamomile tea. "Do we - are we supposed to do anything now?"

"Lance said to just keep to ourselves for the time being, and don't tell any paparazzi about it, either."

"I figured that much."

Leaf nods, twirls a stray strand of hair. "It's still so weird, though. It couldn't have been a Pokémon, couldn't have… Green?"

"I'm listening."

"No, what's with your wrist?" 

_ Shit when did my sleeve ride up - _

"W-What?"

"It looks like - "

Green pulls back before she can reach out, shakes his sleeve down as subtly as he can. "O-Oh, like it got scraped up out there, I-I know, I know. I-I didn't get around to bandaging it again." 

"Well, go do that." Did she buy that? He can't tell. "Seriously, Green, this is why I have to keep tabs on you. If I leave you to your own devices, you forget to do important shit like self-care."

"I know, I know." Green rushes off to the bathroom where he keeps his first aid stuff, heart pounding because he doesn't know what he would've said if she had noticed what was actually there. "Gimme a few."

"Can I raid your fridge?"

"Go for it."

Green sighs deeply, half relieved and half still frantic. If she knew the truth - if she knew about Red - what would she even do? What  _ could _ she do? The witch is out of Kanto's jurisdiction, that much is fine, but if Leaf found out… he doesn't even know what  _ he _ would do. All their lives, they'd believed the witch to just be a myth, and now Red is a part of Green's daily life, and sure, Green has taken to the witch, he loves Red with his whole heart and soul, but… 

Thinking about it isn't going to do him any good. He can only camp out in here for so long before she notices he's been gone too long. He covers the wood under a thin layer of gauze bandaging, not enough to smother the bark but enough to keep it hidden, enough to look convincing. At least he doesn't have to worry too much about his sleeves riding up now. He just needs to -

"Green? Come out here."

"Comin'," and he is, now he can pretend everything is normal again. He's faced with the sight of her squinting at his bedroom door, though, and - and he doesn't have a good feeling about that. "What's up?"

She holds a finger up to shush him, and he does, though his apprehension is rising. He hears what Leaf seems to hear too, Vivi lowly barking at something;  _ what a chatterbox, she's talking Venusaur's ear off, _ Leaf always says. Vivi doesn't make that noise unless she's with another Pokémon.

Leaf turns to Green. "Are any of your other Pokémon out right now?"

He could lie, but he'd be caught the second that door opens. "No, she's just been chatty lately. Acting kinda weird, y'know. I think she knows I'm not, um… knows something happened." Nothing happened. He didn't see anything. Even as his denial starts to fade, he keeps saying it over and over. Maybe it'll be true one of these days. 

Leaf creeps toward the door. "Vivi?"

Vivi  _ adores _ Leaf so of course she sprints right up to the door and sneaks out, wiggling through the crack with her tail wagging a mile a minute. She barks and nudges the door open and  _ goddamn it Vivi I told you to check on Red not lead us right to him - _

"What's in there, girl?" Green has to play dumb at this point.  _ Oh no, a Pikachu snuck in, who would've thunk it,  _ that's gotta be believable enough, maybe. The room is empty when they get in there, though, save for - oh - 

"Honeybee on the wall," Leaf notes. "Bees keep following you around lately. Are you showering with honey instead of soap?" 

"Heh…" What… what does he say? He's been desperately trying to keep all this under wraps and - and he never even considered the idea that he'd have to  _ explain _ himself eventually, he just, this just… ugh. 

"Green?"

Fuck it, just - he'll just be as honest as he reasonally can be. "I dunno, man. Weird shit like that keeps happening and I dunno why."

"Hm…" Leaf puts a hand to her cheek, thinking. "I dunno how to explain it either. How long has it been going on? The bees and stuff, I mean."

_ And stuff. _ He wonders how much else she's noticed. "For… a couple weeks, maybe? I dunno, Leaf, I'm not keeping track."

"You're not curious about it?" 

He shrugs and goes back into the kitchen, back to his tea,  _ get out of the room, stop bothering Red.  _ "Not curious enough to ask. It's not like it's ruining my life or anything."

"I thought you said all your plants were getting weirdly overgrown," she adds.

"Prob'ly from the bees, maybe."

"That's not a hassle?" She finally sits down too, letting Vivi lay on her lap.

"I like plants."

She smirks. "I thought you said you don't know plants."

He groans. "Whatever, man, just - " 

"There's a Pikachu in there."

_ Fuck. _

"What?"

"In your room." Green is facing away from the door but Leaf can see into it past him, apparently, can see enough to see  _ Red. _ "What the hell? Is that what Vivi was so chatty about?" 

She gets up, he follows, and he barely,  _ barely _ comes up with an excuse. "Like - like a little Pikachu?" 

"It looked little from where I was," she answers. By the time they're in the room again, the closet door jitters slightly, open just enough for a small enough Pikachu to sneak in. "Why is there - "

"You know how many Pokémon lost their homes in that fire?" Green cuts her off, not really  _ meaning _ to, but he's getting anxious. 

"Mm… so that Pikachu broke in?"

Pause, for effect. "I mean…"

"...you  _ took _ it in." He nods a bit. "You really are an overachiever, huh? Isn't six Pokémon enough?"

Green rolls his eyes, for theatrics. "Whatever. He's not a battle Pokémon anyway, it's not that much more strain."

"Don't tell me you've got a sore throat 'cause you're allergic to Pikachu."

"I would've known if I were allergic, by now, I - hey, wait!"

Leaf is about to reach into the closet, but Green manages to push her off to the side, not a harsh shove but enough to keep her away from Red. 

"What?"

"He's - you're gonna scare him." And that much, at last, is not a lie. "C'mere, honey, it's okay."

It's a little creepy to see Red's eyes glowing from under a pile of blankets on the floor of the closet, sure, but it's just a trick of the light, just how it reflects off his eyes. Green knows Red by heart at this point. He doesn't think Red could do anything to actually scare him anymore. Red is so sweet. Wouldn't do anything wrong, wouldn't do anything extreme. He didn't see anything. 

"It's okay," Green hums, and perhaps against Red's instincts, he pulls himself out of the pile of linens and clambers over to Green, clings to his chest so that Green has to pick him up in his arms. "There we go, it's okay. It's just Leaf, she's nice."

(Green doesn't realize that Red isn't sure whether to believe him or not. Doesn't know Leaf well enough, doesn't trust her yet. Only trusts his honey boy.)

"Oh, he  _ is _ tiny," Leaf almost whispers, eyes shining down on the little Pikachu, and oh if she knew the truth she wouldn't be so elated. "Is he young?"

"I don't think so," Green answers, rubbing Red's head. "He's just small. Jumpy, too. That's why I didn't want you cornering him in there. D-Don't wanna let him shock you or whatever."

Which he wouldn't, of course, but Leaf could've got a face full of spores instead, and that would've been a lot harder to explain away. 

Red purrs against Green and it takes all his self-restraint to not kiss his head right now and tell him he's precious and he loves him no matter what. Maybe at least two of those things wouldn't be too out of place with a cute little Pokémon, but Leaf would tease him for it either way.

"Let's finish breakfast," Leaf says after a moment. "Maybe then you can get back to bed and sleep off the sickness."

"Maybe." Wait. "What did you take outta the fridge?"

"The leftover tempura vegetables you had in there."

"For breakfast?"

"I won't judge your Pikachu if you don't judge my breakfast, thank you very much." 

He laughs a bit, nerves settling, but just barely. She's so close to knowing and yet so far. One wrong move could put him between a rock and a hard place.

When they sit back down, the tea has cooled a bit, the tension has just about died, the morning is lukewarm. It's still just as sweet, though, still soothing. Red stays curled up on Green's lap and everything feels fine for now. 

"By the way," Leaf says out of the blue, "I'm gonna take another scan around the forest, just to see if I can dig anything else up. I might call you if I notice anything particularly noteworthy, but otherwise, just take it easy, okay?"

He'd take it easier if she didn't mention that. "Yeah, yeah. You need help?"

"Absolutely not, you take your Pikachu and Vivi and lay your ass back in bed, got it? You call  _ me _ if  _ you _ need help with anything, so you don't get sicker than you already are." 

"Fine, fine," in a tone halfway between tired and amused. "Be safe out there, okay?"

"What, are you worried the witch will get me?"

"N-No, just… be careful." The witch won't get her. The witch is purring in his lap right now. 

"...do you believe in it?"

And he knows she's only asking that because  _ it couldn't have been a Pokémon.  _ He's not sure what to say to get the suspicion back off him. "Do you?"

"I dunno. I'm not exactly looking for it, but… I'll keep you in the loop."

"Right." That's all he can think to say. Red whines in his lap and Green scratches behind his ears,  _ it's okay, you're safe with me, _ and Red seems to settle a little at that.

It's a quiet morning of casual conversation after that, barely any more comments about the fact that things seem strange around Green. Maybe Leaf decided she'd given him enough of an interrogation, maybe she just decided the Pikachu fills the weirdness quota for the day and she doesn't need to ask anything else. Whatever it is, he's grateful for the reprieve. 

Grateful for the restored peace of this morning, the smell of chamomile tea. When Leaf leaves earthy the taste of the forest joins that of the blooms, the weight dissipates from his lap and manifests in front of him, there's pressure on his cheeks from dirty hands and pressure on his lips from Red's own. 

Chamomile and forest air and dirt. That's all Green needs to feel at ease.

(Green is all Red needs to feel at ease, too.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy halloween sorry this isn't that spooky but!!!! its halloween time!!!!!! time for more witchy fluff  
also if i keep up my writing pace on this one i miiiight have some Leaf for yall in the near future just sayin (ovo )


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